On three new Species of Flycatchers. 205 



Stand. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 371), but it seems to me that it is 

 not a natural arrangement to associate with the Coracii- 

 formes birds with galline plantars, like the Cuculi, the Mu- 

 sophagi, and the Trochili; birds with Passerine plantars, 

 like the Upupse ; birds with Picine plantars, like the Scan- 

 sores ; and birds with Trogonine plantars, like the Trogones ; 

 whilst birds with Coraciine plantars, like the Cathartes, are 

 excluded. This is, of course, a matter of opinion ; but to 

 include the Meropidse and the Bucerotidae in the Halcyones 

 (or Alcedinoidese, op. cit. p. 395), which are described as having 

 the " dorsal tract simple between the shoulders," appears to 

 me to be inconsistent with fact. So far as I can judge from 

 an examination of specimens of three species of Merops, 

 the spinal feather-tract is forked between the shoulders in 

 the Meropidse, though perhaps not quite so far forward as 

 in the Coraciidse, whilst the spinal feather-tract of the Buce- 

 rotidae is described by Nitzsch as double in some species and 

 simple in others on the interscapular region. After the 

 Bucerotidse and the Meropidse have been removed from the 

 Halcyones, the remaining families can be described as not 

 having the spinal feather-tract forked either on the upper 

 or lower back, a character which greatly simplifies their 

 diagnosis. 



In conclusion, I take the opportunity of correcting an 

 unfortunate blunder in my paper on the Pico-Passeres (Ibis, 

 1890, p. 36). At the bottom of the page the names Bucco- 

 nidse and Galbulidse should be transposed. 



XIX. — Descriptions of three new Species of Flycatchers. 

 By R. Bowdler Sharpe, F.L S., F.Z.S., &c. 



Amongst a few birds presented to the British Museum by 

 Dr. G. Vorderman is an example of a small Siphia from 

 Mount Gedeh, in Java, which appears to me to be unde- 

 scribed. It belongs to the plain-coloured group of the 

 genus, and its nearest ally seems to be the female of Siphia 

 caruleata (Cat. B. iv. p. 457), which has also whitish legs, 

 but which differs in having a blue tail. 



