Mr. 0. Salvin on the Genus Leucopternis. 239 



as mere variety. Again, our Indian bird lays three eggs ; and I 

 have never seen the parent birds feeding more than this number 

 of young ones, occasionally only two. Mr. Tristram, per contra, 

 mentions having met with as many as five and six. Lastly, it 

 is difficult to conceive that Burnesia lepida, Blyth, and its 

 African ally [Malurus gracilis, Rlipp.) can be identical; for, 

 judging from the Indian representative, it is a bird of very 

 limited powers of flight, and certainly not capable of flying 

 more than a few yards at a time. 



I cannot, however, do better than forward herewith the second 

 nest above alluded to, together with its belongings, to enable the 

 matter to be authoritatively disposed of. The egg is certainly 

 the prettiest and one of the smallest I have ever seen; indeed 

 I found it too small to risk measurement. 



The nest referred to by Jerdon as having been found on the 

 Indus by Lieut. Wood cannot belong to this species for two 

 reasons : first, it is not the nature of birds of this group to 

 make sl pensile nest; and, second, the subject of this note is one 

 of those few birds that breed between the end of the cold weather 

 and the beginning of the hot (March and April) — not during the 

 rains as the generality of them do (July to September). 



B. lepida will probably be found wherever there is thao jungle 

 intermixed with surput grass along all large rivers. Mr. Brooks 

 has recently obtained a specimen on the banks of the Jumna. 



Like Drymoepus inornatus, the male of B. lepida has a blackish 

 bill, while in the female it is fleshy brown. I find that the sexes, 

 as a rule, can be distinguished by this peculiarity ; but perhaps 

 this sexual diff"erence is only seasonal. 



Futtegliur, 

 N.W, Provinces, India. 



XXIX. — A further Revision of the Genus Leucopternis, with a De- 

 scription of a new Species. By Osbert Salvin, M.A. &c. 



(Plate VIII.) 



In August 1868 Mr. Sclater and I published a synopsis of the 

 species of the genus Leucopternis, in the text accomj)anyiug a 



