520 Eev. T. Hinc!is"on British Pohjzoa. 



The ear-coverts only to just beneath the eye chestnut, the 

 feathers white-shafted. Chin, throat, and all the lower parts 

 white. Flanks pale sepia-grey ; under tail-coverts the same, 

 tipped white. 



Irides reddish brown. Legs umber. 



Length 4"6 inches, wing 2'3, tail 2*05, tarsus 0*7, bill at 

 front 0-3. 



This bird is close to Staphida torqueola, Swin. ; but in that 

 species the chestnut commences at the base of the lower man- 

 dible, passes under the eye and round the nape in a broad 

 band of chestnut-brown, and the last three teiiiaries are mar- 

 gined white on inner web. This is absent in the Assam bird. 

 Obtained by Mr. M. J. Ogle near Sadya and Brahmakhiind, 

 Eastern Assam. 



In my note-book I find that I obtained one example in the 

 Dikrang valley, Dafla hills, which I shot at camp no. 9 ; but 

 this was subsequently lost somehow or other, and therefore 

 I did not bring it into the list of birds from the Dafla 

 hills, published in the Journ. Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



It is also interesting to record the occurrence near Sadya of 

 Halcyon pileata und Fodica per sonata. 



LXVI. — On British PoJyzoa. — Part II. Classification. 

 By the Rev. Thomas Hincks, B.A., F.R.S. 



Order INFUNDIBULATA. 



Suborder Cheilostomata. 



In attempting the classification of the Cheilostomatous Poly- 

 zoa, one of the most important points to be detennined is the 

 exact amount of weight which is to be assigned to the colo- 

 nial habit or mode of growth in constituting the generic 

 gToups. Smitt takes the position that the system of classi- 

 fication should be based entirely on the characters of the 

 individual zoooecium ; and amongst these characters he assigns 

 the first place to the form of the apertm-e*. 



* " Quod ad hunc ordinem {Cheilostomata) in siibordines distribuen- 

 dum attinet, principia sequimiir, quse conjecisse videtur primus Milne- 

 Edwards, quum, in aduotatiouibus ad Fhistras apud Lamarck, fonnam 

 zoocecii solam esse de Bryozois notam dixit, quae certo limite genera 

 describeref (Smitt, " Brjozoa marina in regicnibus arcticis et borealibus 

 viventia." (Ei\. k. Yet.-Akad. Forh. 1867, p. 408). "In its generic cbarac- 

 ter " (he is spealciug of his genus Hippothoa) " of coui'se we must cast 

 away the form -of the colonial growth, founding it upon the form of the 

 zoocecial aperture " (' Floridan Biyozoa,' part ii. p. 40). 



I inny remark here that Prof Smitt"s method is, of course, inappli- 



