Viscount Walden 07i the Muscicapa melanictera. 319 



given agrees in every respect with my Ceylon, specimens, and 

 consequently with Le Cap Negre. A few years later, Dr. Jerdon, 

 in his ' Catalogue of the Birds of Southern India,' described a 

 short-footed Thrush from Malabar, under the title of Brachypus 

 rubineits, which species, in the distribution of the colouring, and, 

 indeed, in the actual tints of the upper surface of the body-plu- 

 mage, very closely resembles my Ceylon specimens; but it is 

 of a somewhat smaller size, and the coloration of the under sur- 

 face, as well as that of the wings and tail, is very different. The 

 chin is black, the throat a bright flame-coloured orange, and 

 the remainder of the under plumage is more of an orange than 

 a saffron-yellow. The quills and rectrices are olive-brown, and 

 much paler than those of my Ceylon specimen, and the white 

 terminal caudal band is wanting. Dr. Jerdon gave a good 

 figure of this bird in his * Illustrations of Indian Ornithology ' 

 for 1846, at the time suggesting that his might be the same 

 bird as Mr. Gould's B. guluris, and remarking that although Mr. 

 Gould had omitted a description of the throat, it was probably 

 through error, " as the specific name is derived therefrom." Now 

 this was merely a surmise of Dr. Jerdon, and did not rest upon 

 a comparison made between the two types. To me it appears 

 improbable that the most prominent feature in B. ruhineus, its 

 bright orange throat, should have been omitted in Mr. Gould's 

 diagnosis. The name gularis might most appropriately have 

 been given to a specimen of the Ceylon bird ; for in it the yellow 

 of the throat is very much narrowed by the black of the border- 

 ing cheek-plumage, and contrasts, by its greater purity, with 

 the more olive-yellow of the breast. Anyhow, as Mr. Gould's 

 description does not resemble B. 7'ubineus, Jerd., in its most 

 essential character, and does agree in every respect with Le Cap 

 Negre, I am obliged to make it a synonym of the latter spe- 

 cies ; and when we consider the number of Malabar species that 

 also exist in Ceylon, the supposed Travancore origin of Mr. 

 Gould's type is not an insuperable objection to such a reduc- 

 tion. I also see that Mr. Gray, in his ' Genera of Birds,' keeps 

 B. gularis, Gould, and B. ruhineus, Jerd., distinct, while Sundevall 

 makes B. gularis, Gould, a synonym of Le Cap Negre. 



In a synopsis of the Brachypodince, published in the * Journal 



