34 M. E. Pen-ier on new Species o/" Asteriidge. 



Dr. Jerdon, in a paper on some birds from Upper Burmah, 

 in the ' Ibis ' for 1862, p. 19, describes, under the title Chry- 

 somma, a bird he obtained at Thyatmjo, which I do not think 

 has since been got there. Among the collection from the 

 Dafla hills there are several skins of what can be no other 

 than this species. Dr. Jerdon's description and the size agree 

 very well. To Lord Walden is due the credit of identification. 

 It is curious to say, Dr. Jerdon in the above paper twice (pro- 

 bably writing fast, and using the term '^chur ") writes " Bar- 

 rampootra" instead of Irrawaddy,the above word being applied 

 to the sandy islands of the former river ; but there is just this 

 possibility, that the specimen really came from Assam, where 

 I found it quite common in the grassy country of the Bishnath 

 plain up to the base of the Dafla hills. It is very close to 

 Pictorhis sinensis, Gmelin, as mentioned by Dr. Jerdon in the 

 * Birds of India,' vol. ii. p. 16, and approximates in its higher 

 and shorter bill to the Paradoxornis group. It is, however, not 

 so gregarious, being only found two or three together. I found 

 it a very hard bird to shoot, from its rapid dodgy flight in the 

 grass, and the quick way in which it would hide at once ; this 

 is probably the cause of its not having been oftener noticed 

 and collected. I have failed to discover where Dr. Jerdon's 

 original type of this interesting bird can now be. 



I take the earliest opportunity in this paper to suppress 

 the species [Oarrulax albosuperciliaris) figured in the ' Journ. 

 Asiat. Soc. Bengal,' 1874, and described by me in the * Proc. 

 Zool. Soc' for 1874. It is, I find, the same as G. sannio, 

 Swinhoe. The only variation I noticed in the single specimen 

 with which I have compared it was a slight difference in the 

 shade of coloration of the upper surface ; this is one often 

 seen in birds taken on the extreme limits of their range. 



V. — Diagnoses of new Species q/" Asteriidse and Linkiidae in 

 the British Museum. By M. Edmond Peerier*. 



Asterias Rodolphi. 



Very like A. glacicdis, L., from which it differs chiefly in 

 the number of rays, which is seven, and the position of the 

 ventral spines near the ambulacra! spines, which form a triple 

 and not a double series as in the European species. 



Hab. Raoul Island, Kermadec Islands. Presented by the 

 Lords of the Admiralty, and collected by J. Macgillivray 

 during the voyage of H.M.S. ' Herald.' 



* Translated by Mr. Edgar A. Smithy Zoological Department. 



