494 Miscellaneous, 



Description of a new species of Himalayan Mole (Talpa macrura) . 

 By B. H. Hodgson, Esq. 



In preparing a set of skins and skulls for despatch to Europe, I 

 find a marked species of Mole which has not been, I think, described, 

 and which differs from the ordinary Himalayan one by being a third 

 smaller, yet having a tail five times as long. The following is its 

 summary description : — 



Tip of snout to base of tail 4 inches. Head 1| inch. Tail and 

 hair 1^ inch ; tail only, ly 1 ^ inch, palma and nails f inch, planta and 

 nails f inch. 



Its colour is deep slaty blue, with canescent gloss, iridescent when wet. 



The tail is cylindric and pretty well covered with soft hair, which 

 extends a little beyond its tip. As I called the other micrura, so I 

 name this one macrura. 



Moles are very abundant in the Himalaya, the deep bed of black 

 vegetable mould, everywhere prevailing (so long as its protecting 

 cover of forest and brushwood is not cleared off), affording a plentiful 

 supply of those earth-worms which constitute the Mole's chief food. 



The abundance of Moles, therefore, gives a distinct clue to the 

 surface-character of this gigantic system of mountains, or rather to 

 the Indian slope of it, and most especially to the central or normal 

 region. — Journal of the Royal Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, No. 2, 1858. 



On Euchsetes coccineus, a new genus of Birds. 

 By P. L. Sclater, M.A. 



The single specimen of this bird in M. Verreaux's collection from 

 the Rio Napo is the most interesting novelty which I have met with 

 since I commenced studying the group to which it belongs. Its 

 plumage is precisely that of a Ramphocelus, but the structure is quite 

 different, and renders it impossible to place it in that group. The 

 form of the bill is rather that of the true Tanagrce, and agrees more 

 nearly with that oiTanagra olivi-cyanea and Buthraupis eximia, but 

 it is shorter, thicker, and more swollen than in the former, though not 

 so much so as in the latter of these birds. The tail is comparatively 

 much shorter than in either of these forms ; and altogether it is, I 

 think, impracticable to arrange it in any other way than as a separate 

 generic division, for which the following characters may suffice : — 



Rostrum forte, breve, carinatum, compressum, culmine arcuato, 

 gonyde ascendente, dente frnali distincta, commissura paululum 

 sinuata ; vibrissis nullis : alee longce, remige prima quartam 

 cequante et a secunda et tertia longissimis paulo superatis : 

 cauda brevis, apice modice rotundata : pedes fortes, sicut in 

 genere Buthraupide : ptilosis coccinea, nigro varia. 



EuchjEtes coccineus, J. Verreaux, MS. 



Coccineus : loris, facie et mento cum gutture et collo antico, alis 



caudaque nigerrimis : rostro et pedibus nigris. 

 Long, tota 6 "5, alee 3*5, caudse 2*4, rostri a fronte 0'55, a rictu 

 07, tarsi 09. 



Proc. Zool Soc. Jan. 26, 1858. 



