174 



rrMKLIIDJE; 



. Adult. General colour abovig iiniform oliVe-greeu, slightly yel- 

 lower bn the rump and upper tail-coverts ; tail yellowish olive, with 

 & broad band of dark brown at the end ; wing-coverts like the back, 

 the quills dark brown, externally yellowish olive, the secondaries 

 entirely of the latter colour : head and hind neck slaty blue, the 

 latter slightly washed with the colour of the back ; lores white ; 

 feathers round the eye and sides of head black, with streaks of dull 

 white on the ear-coverts and cheeks ; throat ashy black, with indis- 

 tinct browner shaft-lines ; on each side of the throat a white patch, 

 nearly meeting across the latter ; breast, sides of body, and thighs 

 olive-greenish, the centre of the body yellow, deeper on the under 

 tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts and axillaries yellow ; quills ashy 

 brown below, yellow along the inner webs. Total length 7 inches, 

 culmen 0-55, wing 3-4, tail 3'4, tarsus 0-8. 



The Formosan Finch-billed Bulbul is strictly confined to the 

 Chinese island of Formosa. 



a. Ad. sk. 



Forni'jsa. 



E. Swinhoe, Esq. [C.]. 



27. IRENA. 

 Irena, Horsf. Tr. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 1-5.3. . 



Tvpe. 

 I. turcosa. 



Head o{ Ircnci crinUjtr, to show nuclial hairs. 



Range. Indian peninsula, Indo-Chinese countries, Malayan pe- 

 ninsula ; Java ; Sumatra ; Borneo ; Philippine Islands. 



This genus was fully described by me in the present work 

 (vol. iii. i)p. 265-2G9), where it will be found placed at the end 

 of the family Dicruridae. Its position was challenged by the late 

 Marquis of Tweeddale in his critique on raj- third volume (' Ibis,' 

 1878, pp. 82, 83) ; and he very properly points out an error of mine, 

 in uniting a genus like Ireiut, which has twelve tail -feathers, with the 

 family of Drongos, one of whose special characteristics is the posses- 

 sion of only ten rectrices. I consider, therefore, that if Ircna is not 

 to be put with the Dicruridifi, it must be placed with the Bulbuls, 

 as Blyth and Jerdon have already done. The nuchal bristles, the 

 existence of which I believe I was the first to point out, likewise 

 seem to ally the Bluebirds with the rest of the Brachypodina; ; but 

 at the same time their nostrils are covered with dense plumes, as in 

 the Drongos. 



