Species of the Genus Turdinulus. 57 



the smallest of the genus. Plumage as in its congeners, with 

 long white snpercilia and white spots tipping the wing- 

 coverts. Length 4^ inches ; wing 2 in. ; tail 1 in. ; bill to 

 gape I in. Sumatra.^' 



It is clear that this description, brief as it is, cannot apply- 

 to the Myiothera murina, S. Miill. {= Craterosce/is murina), 

 which is a native of New Guinea and some of the adjacent 

 islands, not of Sumatra; and Dr. Sharpe [Notes Leyd. 

 Mus. vi. p. 172 (1884)] is no doubt correct in regarding the 

 M. murina, Blyth (nee S. Miiller), as identical with M. [Tur- 

 dinulus] epilepidota, Temm. PI. Col. ii. pi. 107 [no. 418] 

 fig. 2(1827). 



Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. vii. p. 593), following Mr. A. O. Hume 

 [Str. F. ix. p. 115 (1880)], wrongly identified M. murina, 

 Blyth, with Pno'epyga roberti, Godw.-Aust. & Wald., the 

 latter name becoming of course a synonym of his Turdinulus 

 murinus, the description of which was taken from Col. God- 

 win-Austen^s type of P. roberti, for in 1883 the British 

 Museum did not possess an example of this little Babbler. 



Then followed the mistake of identifying the Mooleyit 

 birds as T. roberti which I have already alluded to. 



Mr. E. W. Gates was the next to fall into this trap, and 

 his description of T, roberti (Fauna Brit. Ind., Birds, i. 

 p. 17G) is taken from the Tenasserim specimens, which belong 

 to a species totally distinct from the Manipur bird. 



Subsequently I compared my T. guttaticollis from the 

 Miri Hills with what I believed to be the true T. roberti 

 (from Tenasserim); but later on, in going through Col. God- 

 win-Austen^s collections, I came on his types of that species 

 and saw, to ray consternation, that what I had thought such 

 a distinct new bird was really very closely allied to Robert's 

 Babbler. 



That the two species prove to be distinct is due to 

 accident ; the JNliti bird is darker and altogether browner, 

 and lacks the rufous on the sides of the breast and flanks. 

 It will thus be seen that the Tenasserim birds are not 

 T. roberti and must have a name. But Dr. Sharpe's Tur- 

 dinulus exsul, from the highlands of Borneo, is so ex- 



