ERYTHROPYGIA PECTORALIS. 



brown ; the base of lower mandible yellowish ; legs light yellowish brown, 

 with a flesh coloured tint ; eyes clear Dutch-orange. 



Form, &c. — Figure slender ; bill slightly curved ; the culmen blunt and 

 considerably arched, the degree of curvature in the latter greatest towards 

 the point ; the bill triangular towards base, compressed towards the point ; 

 the sides of mandibles slightly convex ; nostrils small, opening longitudinally 

 and near to the commissure ; emargination of upper mandible slightly indi- 

 cated. Wings rounded, short, and when folded reach a little beyond the base 

 of the tail ; the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh quill feathers equal and 

 longest, the third slightly shorter, the second considerably shorter than the 

 third, and the first about half the length of the longest ones, and broad and 

 rounded at its point. The secondary and tertiary quill feathers but little 

 shorter than the primaries. Tail long and slightly rounded at the point, the 

 apices of the feathers broad and rounded ; tarsi moderately strong, faintly 

 scutellated anteriorly, entire posteriorly. Toes rather slender, the lateral 

 ones equal in length and considerably shorter than the middle one, rather 

 longer than the hinder one, the latter is the most robust. Claws slender, 

 pointed and moderately curved, the hinder claws strongest and longest. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Indies. Lines. 

 Length from the point of the bill to the 



tip of the tail C 3 



of the bill from the gape Si 



of the tail 3 ij 



of the wings when folded 2 9i 



* Inches. Lines. 



Length of the tarsi 11 



of the outer toe 85 



of the middle toe 01 



of the hinder toe 3 



In the female the colours are not r[uite so bright as in the male. The size 

 of both sexes is the same, and the colours are distributed after the same 

 pattern. 



This and the species represented in the next Plate (L.) accord so perfectly in their habits, 

 organization, and configuration, that no doubt can exist as to their being of the same group ; 

 but what that group may be is not so easily to be decided. In their manners and habits they 

 have a remarkable similitude to the Sa.ricola, and their colours are distributed after a like 

 fashion. The form and character of their individual organs, however, exclude them from that 

 group. The bill, wings and tail are not those of Saxicolce, and the circumstance of their never 

 leaving trees and descending to the ground, also removes them from a genus the species of 

 which, in many respects, they strongly resemble. They jerk their wings after the same manner 

 as the Saxicola, and they hunt for insects wliich constitute their food with the same activity. 



