22 Lord Walden on the Sun-bir'ds 



(Hodgs.); Kotegurgli in winter^ Rampoor (Stoliczka) ; Maun- 

 bhoom (Beavan) ; Almorali (Brooks) ; Candeisli (Mus. nostr.); 

 Arracan, Calcutta (Blyth). 



The extreme western and eastern limits of this dominant 

 species have not been as yet determined. When not in nuptial 

 dress the males cast off all the black body-feathers except those 

 on the mesial line. On this subject, which has given rise to much 

 speculation, Mr. Blyth's statement (Journ. Asiat, Soc. Beng. xii. 

 p. 978) that the females, when breeding, assume the full dress of 

 the male, has been denied by Capt. Beavan (Ibis, 1865, p. 416). 

 An individual, either of this species or else of some as yet unrecog- 

 nized Arachnechthra, in the non-breeding plumage just described, 

 formed the subject of Brisson's Certhia philippensis grisea (Orn. 

 iii. p. 615, t. xxx. f, 3) . It cannot have been an example of A. 

 lotenia ; for the length of the bill is stated to have been 9 lines. 

 Nor can it have belonged to any of the other known Arachnech- 

 thra, because the wing-coverts of Brisson's bird were of a polished 

 steel-violet colour. The type-specimen, according to Brisson, 

 was sent to M. Aubry from the Philippines. No binomial title 

 has ever been given to Brisson's species ; but, most unfortunately, 

 Linnseus added Brisson's title* as a synonym to his Certhia cur- 

 rucaria, the name he bestowed on a female or young male of either 

 Nectarophila zeylonica or else of A. asiatica. Linnseus's type 

 was given to him by Governor Loten, who procured it in Ceylon. 

 Thus runs the diagnosis: — " C. olivacea, suhtus fluvescens" &c.; 

 and then " subtus a gula ad anum fiavescens " is added. No 

 mention is made of the central dark stripe, nor of metallic wing- 

 coverts. Brisson's description therefore can in no way help us 

 to determine the true C. currucaria, L.; yet every author, from 

 Montbeillard down to the present time, has so used it. The 

 word currucaria has even come to be an ornithological term ; 

 for we find, in the ' Birds of India,' Dr. Jerdon using this 



* Linnseus omitted tlie word "grisea," which makes Brisson's title 

 read C. j^^Mij^pensis, a diflereut species, on which Linnseus founded his 

 C. pMlip2)ina. Linnseus, however, quoted the page, plate, and figure 

 correctly ; yet he added the number 2, the number of the figure which re- 

 presents C. philippensis on the same plate with C.phHipjyensis grisea. This 

 does not alter the main fact that the Linnsean diagnosis of C. currucaria 

 was oriffiual. 



