33 



moderate, that is, shorter than in Rhipidura ; tail gradated and 

 narrow. 



Type, H. piccecolor, mihi. — Above dusky brown, passing to black 

 on the wings and tail ; a large obliąue centrai bar of ■vvhite down the 

 wing ; two bars on the croup, the margin of the black cap, and the 

 terminai part of the lateral alars white ; belovv pale sooty to the 

 breast, thence to tail-coverts albescent ; bill and legs black. Female 

 •wanting the black cap of the malė. Length, 5| inches ; bill, i^ ; 

 tail, 2f ; wing, 2^ ; tarse, A ; centrai toe and nail, ^ ; hind, ■^. 



Inhabits the hills generdly ; chiefly procured in the great valley. 



Alatjdin^. 

 Genus Heterura, mihi. 



Bill to gape equal to the head, to brow much less than the head ; 

 Anthine in the general character, but stronger, Tvith the culmen, 

 commissure and gonys more or less curved ; base of the upper man- 

 dible a good deal cut out by the nareal fosse, and its tip inclined and 

 notched ; tomiae trenchant and scarpt internally ; nares advanced, la- 

 teral, oval, shaded above by a nude scale-like membrane ; rietus to 

 eye, and slightly bristled ; wings very short, not surpassing the base 

 of the tail, yet strictly Alaudine in all their details, with the primes 

 ungradate, the tertials equal to primes, and all the centrais notched 

 at the tips and emarginated on the outer web towards the tips, as in 

 the Alaudines ; Ist quill eąual to 5th, and both rather less than 2, 3, 4, 

 which are eąual and longest ; tail ample, scansorial, that is, distinctly 

 rigid, and the separate plumes acutely wedged ; form of the tail Pa- 

 rian, or slightly gradate from centre and from sides ; legs and feet 

 strong and typically ambulant, with high scutellate tarse and medial, 

 compressed, full, solid toes, having the laterals eąual, the centrai 

 sufficiently long, and the hind least and not depressed ; nails simple, 

 slender, fuUy curved ; hind long and nearly eąual to the digit. 



Exclusively monticolous ; found in the brushy uplands of the cen- 

 trai region ; feed and breed on the ground ; food grylli and other in- 

 sects and seeds ; stomach strongly muscular ; intestines of medial 

 length and furnished with tiny cseca. Nešt made loosely of grass 

 and saucer-shaped ; eggs bluish, thickly spotted. Type, H. sylvana, 

 mihi. 



H. sylvana. — Above clear brown, picked out raarginally with clear 

 rufous, as in the Larks ; below rufescent, with narrowing centrai 

 stripes ; chin immaculate ; a dark mustache ; superciliary line pale ; 

 tail-feathers internally and laterally albescent ; upper coverts pro- 

 longed and pointed, as in the Larks ; bill sordid fleshy or hom ; 

 legs clear, carneous ; iris brown ; sexes alike. Length, 7^ inches ; 

 bill to gape, W ; tail, 2| ; wing, 3 ; tarse, \^ ; centrai toe and nail, 



• 5 . ViJnrl 3. 



T? ' nma, -Ę. 



Remark. — This singular bird has been thus particularly deseribed 

 because of the difficulty of sparing details by anything likę an assured 

 allocation of it. It seems to be an analogous form to Praticola, and 



