182 Mr. A. Hume on Indian Ornithology. 



wing of this last (in other respects very similar) the first pri- 

 mary is proportionally much less, and the second rather more 

 developed than in Jerdonia. 



Phyllopneuste rama, to a casual observer, very closely resem- 

 bles our type-species of Jerdonia. But the bill of the former is 

 more depressed, wider, less compressed, blunter-pointed, and 

 has a less well marked culmen. Moreover, as a rule, the skull 

 is less raised and more Acrocepkalus-like in P. rama, than in 

 Jerdonia, and the tarsus of the former is longer and the mid 

 toe shorter than in the latter. 



Compared with PhijHoscopus, the bill is, as a rule, longer, the 

 first primary less developed, the leet proportionally larger, the 

 mid toe more elongated, and the hind claw smaller and less 

 curved. I say as a rule, because wide differences of structure 

 exist in the birds usually included in the one genus Phyllo- 

 scopus. P. fuscatus, for instance, has a bill the exact miniature 

 of that of Aedon galactodes, the first primary more than half as 

 long as the second, the fourth and fifth longest, and the third 

 and sixth subequal, and only a trifle shorter than the fourth and 

 fifth, while the second is quite '3 75 in. shorter than the third. 

 In P. sihilatrix the bill, though slightly more compressed at the 

 point, is that of Phyllojmeuste rama, while the first primary is 

 exceedingly minute^ as in a Reed- or Sedge-Warbler, and the 

 rest of the wing pointed almost like a Falcon^s, the third 

 primary the longest, the fourth nearly \2o in. shorter, the fifth 

 shorter by even a greater amount than the fourth, the sixth 

 similarly shorter than the fifth, and the second at most ■125 in. 

 shorter than the third. I may add that the notes and flight of 

 these two species are equally different. 



Similar differences are observable in other species of the genus 

 when good, fresh^ specimens in perfect plumage are compared. 



Jerdonia agricolensis, sp. nov. 



Dimensions. Length i*5 to 5, expanse 6'5 to 7, wing 2*22 

 to 2'32, tail from vent 1*9 to 2*1, tarsus '8, middle toe and 



* The practice of closing the moutli before skinning-, hy running a thread 

 through the nostrils and tying it round the bill tightly, greatly modifies 

 the shape of the bill in many dried specimens, converting broad depressed 

 upper mandibles into comparatively narrow and compressed ones. Even 

 after the moult is complete it is some time before the primaries assume 

 tlieir normal proportions. 



