HODGSON'S FROGMOUTH. 15 



Family CAPRIMULGID^. 

 Subfamily PODARGIN^l. 



Genus BATRACHOSTOMUS, Gould. 



413. BATRACHOSTOMUS AFFINIS. 

 HODGSON'S FROGMOUTH. 



Batrachostomus affinis, Bl. J. A. S. B. xvi. p. 1180, xviii. p. 806; Hume, S. F. 

 ii. p. 351, iv. p. 376 ; Tweedd. P. Z. S. 1877, p. 426, pi. xlv. ; Hume fy Dav. S. F. 

 vi. p. 53 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 80 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 149. Otothrix 

 hodgsoni, G. R. Gray, P. Z. S. 1859, p. 101, pi. clii. ; Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 190 ; 

 Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 93; id. S. F. ii. p. 348. Batrachostomus 

 hodgsoni, BL $ Wald. B. Burm. p. 83 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 53 ; Hume, 

 S. F. viii. p. 85. 



I have not been able, for want of specimens, to work up this difficult 

 group of birds, and I therefore deem it better to follow the late Marquis 

 of Tweeddale, who has written a most exhaustive monograph of the genus 

 Batrachostomus. 



According to Lord Tweeddale, the names B. affinis and B. hodgsoni refer 

 to the same species, and he also adds as a synonym B. castaneus, Hume. 

 The accuracy of this latter identification,, however, is, I think, open to 

 doubt, and I do not adopt it. 



Only three specimens of Batrachostomus have been procured in British 

 Burmah and Karennee by reliable collectors. The first was shot by the 

 late Colonel Tickell near Tonghoo and is figured and described by him in 

 his ' Illustrations of Indian Ornithology/ vol. vii. ; the second was pro- 

 cured by Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay in Karennee at an elevation of 6000 feet, 

 and the third was obtained by Capt. Bingham in the Thoungyeen valley in 

 Tenasserim. 



Colonel Tickell thus describes his bird : " Iris sepia ; bill fleshy horn ; 

 legs horn. Head, upper back and scapulars bt. umbre, shaded ferruginous 

 on back and mingled with greyish on scaps. : the whole vermiculated 

 crossways, black. Outer webs of two or three largest scapulars white 

 bordered with black. Tertials clouded brown, ferruginous and grey, with 

 black veriniculations. Wing- coverts rusty vinous, broadly vermiculated 

 black. Secondaries and primaries, outer webs chestnut rusty with broken 

 narrow bars of black. Inner webs sepia. Tips of primaries pale and 

 mottled. Tail cinnamon-brown, shaded gray marginally and vermiculated 

 black, and crossed with five paler bars (not joining the shafts) , subterminal 



