834 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON A NEW CALLENE. [NoV. 14, 



Museum in Calcutta, resembles rather the colour of Brachypterijx 

 cruralis. 



The sexes do not appear to differ. In the two specimens sent by 

 Mr. Fairbank the female is a little the paler ; but this appears due 

 to the male being in brighter and fresher plumage. 



Callene albiventris inhabits the thick patches of forest (called 

 Sholas), which are so remarkable a character in the hills of Southern 

 India. It appears to be scarce. The eggs, two of which are sent, 

 are two in number, of an olive-brown colour, darker at the larger 

 end, measuring 0'92 and 0'63 inch in their greater and less dia- 

 meters. Mr. Fairbank writes thus : — "The nest I found in a small 

 hole, just big enough for it, in the trunk of a tree a yard above the 

 ground. It was neatly made of moss and fibrous roots. I surprised 

 the female on the nest several times. She laid two eggs in April, 

 and was incubating when I discovered and took them. In June 

 another nest was built in the same hole, and two eggs were laid, 



and then the bird began to sit The song is sweet and 



loud (not so loud as that of Merula simillima or Trochalopteron 

 jerdoni) and varied, though it is generally confined to four notes — 

 sol, la, si, do." 



We have thus, on the Nilghiri and Pulney hills in Southern India, 

 two representatives of an Eastern Himalayan form, with, like most 

 Eastern Himalayan forms, strong Malayan affinities. This case is 

 the type of many others ; and the remarkable peculiarity to which 

 I alluded above is the representation of Himalayan tj^pes with Malay 

 affinities, which are wanting tliroughont the plains of India, in the 

 higher hill-groups of the southern portion of the peninsula and of 

 Ceylon . 



The fauna of the plains of India has very nearly as marked affi- 

 nities with that of Africa as with that of Malaynesia, as is shown by 

 the occurrence of antelopes, the nylgai, gazelles, the lion, the hunt- 

 ing-leopard, Felis chaus, F. caracal, liysenas, wolves, foxes, bustards, 

 sand-grouse, &c. &c., not one of which is represented to the east- 

 ward, or is found in the hills of Southern India and Ceylon. In 

 those hills, however, are numerous representatives of the Malay 

 fauna of the Himalayas, such as Trochalopteron and Gamilux among 

 the birds, Diplommatina and Alycteus among the land-shells ; and 

 it is to this representation of Himalayan forms, as I have before 

 pointed out with reference to the land-shells, that I believe the 

 greater portion of the affinity, where such really exists, between the 

 fauna of Ceylon and that of Malaynesia is due. This subject, how- 

 ever, which has not received the attention it deserves, is one to which 

 I hope to recur before long. 



P.S. Since writing the above I have seen the specimens of the 

 bird referred by Mr. Fairbank to Trochalopteron jerdoni, Blytli, and 

 I am strongly inclined to believe that, althougli very closely allied 

 to that species, it is a distinguishable race. 



