8 DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW SPECIES OF BIRDS. [1844-45 



Dimensions. j„^l^^ 



Total length 8^ 



^Ving 4t% 



Tail 3 



Tarsus -^ 



Outer hallux 1 



Outer toe 1 



Bill from base l-i^ 



„ » gape l-i^ 



Gracula religiosa, Linne. 



Under the name G. reliqiosa Linne confounded two, if not more species. Cuner subse- 

 quently separated the largest species which is found in Malasia from the continental Indian 

 species, naming the former Javana and the latter indica, without regard to Linne's prior name 

 of rclir/iosa (which was applied to two species, whose distinctness he allowed in his 'Systema 

 Naturae,' but to which he only gave the one name above mentioned). This is, I believe, gene- 

 rally allowed to apply to the larger or Malasian species ; but in reading over attentively the 

 notice given by Linne, in his ' Systema,' of the G. religiosa, I find that the first bii'd described is 

 e\idently our Peninsular bird, as it is distinctly said that the variety No. 2 is much larger. The 

 name relirjiosa, therefore, ought most certainly to be retained to the first described species, and 

 not to the variety. I have now before me specimens of three distinct species, the first from 

 Malacca, the second from Malabar, and the third from Northern India and Arracan ; the third 

 species is intermediate in size between the Malacca and Malabar bird, and difi"ers in other points 

 Madr. Journ. also, which I will point out. To the Malabar bird, as I said before, I would retain Linne's 

 xiii n 155 name of relif/iosa ; to the Malacca bird, should it prove the same as the Javan species, the 

 name of javana ; and to the third species, which has not as yet been noticed as distinct, I 

 would, to avoid confusion, give Cuvier's name of indica, and so avoid adding another name to 

 the already overloaded list of synonyms. 



As the two names religiosa and indica have become so mixed iip that they have been 

 applied by some to our Indian bird, and, again, in the opposite way by others to the Malasian 

 bird, the following description and dimensions will perhaps serve to aid the elucidation of the 

 species, should my previous remarks not prove satisfactory : — 



1st. (j. reliijiom, Linne, Jcrd. Cat. 108. 



The whole of the upper plumage and the lesser shoulder-coverts glossy purplish black, the 

 metallic reflections changing to green on the lower part of the back and upper tail-coverts ; under 

 plumage the same as the upper, though not so bright ; under tail-coverts dull black, and fringed 

 only at the ends with the glossy hues of the general plumage : this latter character, indeed, is 

 possessed by all the feathers when taken singly. Wings and tail coal-black without reflections ; 

 the spurious quill is very short and quite black ; the first primary has a white mark on its inner 

 edge only ; the next six have the white marks on both sides of the shaft, but forming in the sixth 

 (that is, the seventh including the first) a roundish blotch, and not occupying the whole breadth 



