MALACOCIRCUS striatus. 

 Sir idled Babbler. 



Family Merulidae. Sub-fam. Crateropodinge. Sw. North. Zool. 2, 

 p 156'. Genus Malacocircus. 



Generic Character. 

 Bill rasorial, i. e. short, high at the base, conspicuously arched from 



the front, where the feathers are divided ; tip obsoletely notched. 



Tarsi thick, moderate ; the scales entire. Wings and tail rounded. 

 Sub genera. Megalurus. Pomatorhinus. Horsf. Malacocircus. 



Leptonyx. Sw. 



Specific Character. 



Entirely light brown: wings and tail darker, the quill* market! 

 by transverse dark lines : bill and feet yellow : margin of 

 the quills changeable greyish white. 



Gracula striata. Mas. Paris. 



The Babblers, or long legged Thrushes, (forming the sub- 

 family Crateropodinse, Sw.) are almost exclusively confined 

 to the warmer latitudes of the old world ; extending to the 

 north as far as Egypt, and to the south over the greatest 

 part of Australia. Like all birds which belong to the 

 natatorial type, the majority of the species live in the 

 vicinity of water. Their voice, like that of Donacobius, Sw. 

 is particularly discordant, and many of them appear to be 

 gregarious. The present species we received from Ceylon, 

 but without any notice of its habits : another specimen is in 

 the Paris Museum, under the manuscript name of Graeula 

 striata, from the circumstance of the scapular quills, and 

 also the tail feathers, being marked with transverse lines of 

 a darker brown, varying in intensity according to the rays 

 of light. 



We have not yet sufficiently worked out this intricate and 

 little known group : the very existence of which was first 

 announced in North. Zool. 2, p. 156. According to our 

 present views, the genera yet characterized appear to be 

 Cratcropus, Malacocircus, Pellornium, and Tim alia. To 

 Cratcropus, we at present refer the sub-genera Grallina, 

 Vieil, Cinclosoma, II. & V. and Aipunemia, Sw. : while 

 those of Malacocircus are probably Megalurus, II. Po- 

 matorhinus, II. and Leptonyx, Sw. Under the genus 

 Timalia, we place Pscphodes and Vasi/oniis, II. & V. 



127". 



