213 Mr. E. L. Layard on the Ofnithology of Ceylon. 



tapered towards each extremity, which is rounded,, very promi- 

 nent and sessile and plump in appearance. Pi^oper margins full, 

 rounded and incurved. Disk a mere chink. The sporidia are 

 very singular and different from any other known British 

 species. 



Plate VI. fig. 16. c, Plant, nat. size; <?, vertical section of thallus and 

 Hrella; 6, sporidia. 



Opegrapha macularis, Ach., and O. epiphega^ Ach. & E. Bot., 

 seem to be merely states of the same plant. Their structure will 

 be seen from our Plate VIII. fig. 34, which consists of a black 

 carbonaceous perithecium {a) which bursts at intervals through 

 the epidermis of the bark, and finally when the whole epidermis 

 is thrown off by it is found to be continuous. It is raised and 

 elevated here and there over the nucleus, and at those points 

 has frequently a longitudinal depression like the rimaeform disk 

 of an Opegrapha or Hysterium. The base of the nucleus is quite 

 naked or destitute of perithecium. The nucleus consists of pale 

 hyaline oblong sporidia ib) of considerable size, margined and ele- 

 vated on simple pedicels, with others of various sizes in different 

 stages of maturity. This structure clearly distinguishes it from 

 Opegrapha, and refers it to the genus Hysterium j subgenus 

 Dichcena of the Fungi. 



[To be continued.] "/ 



XXI. — Notes on the Ornithology of Ceylon, collected during an 

 eight years' residence in the Island. By Edgar Leopold 

 Layard, F.Z.S., C.M.E.S. :^ 



[Continued from p. 131.] 



146. Zoothera (n. s. ?) imbricata, Layard. 



Among the birds received from Mr. Thwaites is one which I 

 cannot identify with any Indian species, and which may perhaps 

 prove new. I have therefore provisionally named it imbricata 

 from its scaled appearance. 



Length about 9 inches ; of closed wing 4J in. ; tail 3 in. ; bill 

 to end of gape \\ in. ; tarsi lyV in- 

 General colour of back and upper tail-coverts darkish olive- 

 brown, darker on the head ; each feather pales off to the edge, 

 where a black border one line in breadth succeeds. Tail-feathers 

 wholly brown, shafts black. Shafts of wing-feathers dark brown, 

 outer webs reddish brown, inner webs dark brown. On the 

 breast the same style of marking prevails, the colours being pale 



