124 Ornithology of the Neighbourhood of Calcutta. 



extending to the Monghyr and Rajmahl hills. In my last letter I 

 stated that the " Alisbam Yak," so called, was merely a S. African 

 Gnoo, the frontlet of which had found its way to that distant locale ; 

 but a friend who has travelled in the Misham mountains, N.E. As- 

 sam, assures me that he saw there two or three similar frontlets, and 

 I have just seen a female head of this " Assam Gnoo," shot by the late 

 Lieut. Seppings of the Bengal Artillery to the northward of Bish- 

 nath, one of our frontier stations towards Bootan ; this settles the 

 question of the animal being Asiatic, and I shall now have the male 

 and female frontlets figured without further delay. Is it not an ex- 

 traordinary discovery to get a Gnoo in this part of the world ? — 

 perhaps more so even than that of the Shan Bison. [Ann. Nat. Hist, 

 vol. xiii. p. 312.] It will not, however, inhabit the Misham moun- 

 tains, which are densely covered with jungle, but the elevated plain 

 beyond them, I shall come out very strong shortly, with a long list 

 of new mammalia ; and there seems no end to the number of new 

 birds which I have now by me to describe. Among a variety of in- 

 teresting specimens in spirits, chiefly of reptiles and fishes, and com- 

 prising no less than three new Varani among the former, are various 

 bats, comprising the genus Rhinopoma from Agra and Mirzapore. I 

 had previously been quite convinced, from the descriptions of people, 

 that a bat of this genus was abundant in the Taj at Agra. Phayre 

 has now sent me, chiefly from the vicinity of Sandowa, Arracan, as 

 many as 139 species of birds, and several caj^ital iMammalia. In the 

 collection just arrived from him are two new monkeys, which are 

 doubtless, and one of them certainly, the two CercopitJieci mentioned 

 by Heifer. One is a small Macacus, most allied to M. cynoinolgus, 

 and with a similar long tail ; this I shall call M. cancr'tvorits, from its 

 habit of feeding principally on Crustacea. The other is a tremen- 

 dously muscular fellow, closely allied to the pigtailed Macacus of 

 Java (nemestrinns), and to the arctoides of Is. Geoflfroy : it has a 

 copious mane on its fore-quarters, from which I shall style it M. leo- 

 ninus. I have also from the same quarter a new Paradoxurus, some 

 new Sciurida;, and more specimens of the new Manis, some of which 

 I shall soon forward to Dr. Horsfield. Among the birds is a magni- 

 ficent Lyncornis, Gould, which if new may be called L. splendidus . 

 Length about 15 inches ; of wing 1 1^, and tail 8^ in. ; the latter very 

 broad, and the markings of it are superb, having alternate mottled 

 ashy and mottled fulvous bands set off with black ; there are no 

 rictal vibrissae, the feet are as in Caprbmdgus, the wings firm and of 

 considerable length, and the aigrette-like feathers on the sides of the 

 head are, I know, as in Gould's genus. Do the other characters I 

 have named also accord .'' The colour is difficult to describe without 

 going much into detail ; but the throat and breast are principally 

 black, the shoulders of the wings bright bay, the head and tertiaries 

 minutely mottled, with no large spots except along the middle of the 

 crown. Does this brief description tally with either of Gould's spe- 

 cies ? Phayre has also sent a new genus resembling PomatorJiinus 

 in all but the beak, which is straight and much less compressed, also 

 not so much elongated : this I shall name Orthorhitms. Likewise 



