Zoological Society. 14)3 



cntis, CoLLURiciNCiA/wsca, TRicHOPHORUs/areote, and Geocichla 

 'RubecuJa. 



Mr. Gould subsequently directed the attention of the Meeting to 

 a specimen of the Turdus macrourus of Dr. Latham, with the view 

 of explaining the characters which induced him to regard that bird 

 as constituting the type of a new 



Genus Kittacincla. 



Rostrum caput longitudine sequans, ad apicem emarginatum, rec- 

 tiusculum, compressiusculum. 



Nares basales, plumis brevibus utplurimum tectae. 



Alee mediocres, rotundatae : remige Im^ brevissimd, 4t£l 5t^que 

 subsequalibus, longioribus. 



Cauda elongata, gradata. 



Tarsi digitiqMe longiusculi, tenues. 



Obs. Maribus color supra utplurimum niger; subtus brunneus 

 vel albus. 



A paper by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., Corr. Memb. Z.S., on some of 

 the Scolopacidts of Nipal, was read ; the copy transmitted by that 

 gentleman to the Society containing various corrections of his me- 

 moir which was published at Calcutta in the ' Gleanings of Science' 

 for August, 1831. 



Mr. Hodgson's object in the present paper is to bring under the 

 notice of zoologists the various species of the family referred to 

 which occur in Nipal, on the natural history of which country he 

 has, during a residence of several years, been engaged in making 

 most extensive researches. The result of these it is his intention 

 immediately to publish, accompanied by finished representations of 

 the animals, taken from drawings made in almost every instance 

 from numerous living individuals of the several races. 



Mr. Hodgson first describes in detail the common Woodcock, Sco- 

 lopax Rusticola, Linn., as it occurs in Nipal ; where it is, in every 

 respect of form and colour, evidently identical with the European 

 bird. In Nipal also it seems to be, as it is in Western Europe, of 

 migratory habits : and the periods of its arrival in, and departure 

 from, Nipal, correspond altogether with the seasons of its appearance 

 and disappearance in England. 



He then proceeds to describe in detail the several kinds of Snipe 

 which occur in Nipal. 



Two of these are so nearly related to the common Snipe of Europe, 

 Gallinago media, Ray, that Mr. Hodgson is induced to regard them 

 as being probably specifically identical v«th that bird : and he ac- 

 cordingly refers them to it as varieties, which are constantly distin- 

 guished from each other by the structure of the tail. In one of them 

 the tail-feathers are fourteen or sixteen in number, and are all of 

 the same form : in the other the tail-feathers vary in number from 

 trwenty-two to twenty-eight ; and the outer ones on either side, to 

 the number of six, eight, or ten, differ remarkably from those of the 

 middle, being narrow, hard, and acuminated. The latter bird may, 

 however, l)e regarded as the representative of a species to which the 

 name of Gall, heterura may be given. 



