On the Identity of the Rubecola Tytleri of Jameson. 29 
LV. On the Identity of the Rubecola Tytleri of Jameson. By 
Wo. EAGue CiarKE, F.L.S., M.B.O.U. 
(Read 15th February 1893.) 
At a meeting of the Wernerian Society, on the 25th of 
April 1835, Professor Jameson exhibited and described what 
he believed to be a new species of bird, to which he gave 
the name of Rubecola Tytleri. Of this species no adequate 
description appears to have been published. In the Memoirs 
of the Wernerian Society (vol. vii., p. 487), and in the 
Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal (vol. xix., p. 214), 
however, there appeared, in identical terms in both publica- 
tions, an account of the “ Proceedings” of this meeting. In 
these the new bird is shortly described as agreeing “in the 
grouping of the colours with the common Robin; yet, in the 
form of the bill, it presented, as it were, a link between the 
genus Rubecola and Phenicura”—that is, between the Robin 
and the Redstart. The specimen is also described as having 
been sent to the Edinburgh University Museum by Lieut. 
Tytler “from the Himalayan Mountains.” 
This description, though very slight, is sufficient to indicate 
that Rubecola Tytleri belongs to a small group of Flycatchers 
of the genus Muscicapa, the males of which are red-breasted, 
and which, chiefly from the style of their coloration, were 
promoted by Prince Bonaparte to the rank of a genus— 
Erythrosterna. As to which particular species of the group 
this bird should be assigned, some uncertainty has always 
prevailed. If this had not been so, and if it had not been 
awarded synonymic rank in several works of importance, 
and if too, it had not been, as I am now able to state, 
associated with the wrong species, then Rubecola Tytleri might 
have been allowed to remain in the shades of obscurity in 
which Professor Jameson left it. 
Under the circumstances, however, it was, perhaps, not 
undesirable that the type-specimen should be forthcoming 
While recently engaged in rearranging the Bird Collections 
in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, I came across 
Professor Jameson’s type-specimen of this bird, with the 
