210 A FEW REMARKS ON SCHCENICOLA PLATYURA. 



3. — The tail is excessively graduated, the outer feathers 

 being rather more than one inch short of the central ones ; 

 and the tail-feathers generally are of a peculiar broad or squar- 

 ish shape at the ends instead of being oval or slightly lan- 

 ceolate as in Dumeticoia. 



Jt is worthy of note that there are really twelve feathers 

 in the tail, but the outer pair are only seen when the long 

 under tail-coverts are lifted up, which accounts for the bird 

 having been originally described as having only ten. 



4. — The feathers on the forehead are stiff and strong, which 

 is a characteristic not possessed by Dumeticoia. 



Schomicola is not unlike Bradyptetus, but the latter has a 

 slender straight bill, much compressed at the sides, and the 

 rictal bristles are very fine and hardly observable ; they are 

 also straight. The tail of Bradyptetus, as far as I can ascer- 

 tain from the specimens I have examined, has only ten feathers. 

 It is not so strongly graduated as in Schcenicola, the outer 

 feathers being about half an inch short of the tip. The wing 

 of Bradyptetus is very close to that of Schcenicola, and in the 

 full soft body plumage, and the broad ample tail, the two genera 

 are much alike, as indeed, they also are to Dumeticoia. 



A remarkable peculiarity in S. platyura is the very long 

 slender foot, compared with the size of the bird. This long 

 foot, with such slender toes and small claws, is, I think, some- 

 what distinctive of Schcenicola. 



Looked at in a good light, the whole back and upper tail- 

 coverts are cross rayed, the bars being at narrower intervals 

 than on the tail. The upper surface of the bird is quite as 

 red, and of a richer tone than in Tribura luteoventris ; below 

 it is quite as red a bird, but with a less amount of central 

 albescent or fulvous white than in that species. This central 

 whitish patch is interrupted by the light reddish brown across 

 the breast. The lower tail-coverts are pale, slightly reddish 

 brown, and have much lighter edges. The central ones are 

 about '85 short of the tip of the tail. 



There is the usual small sylvine notch at end of the upper 

 mandible. 



The Editor has shown that Dumeticoia was founded upon an 

 Acrocephalus, and as there is really no structural difference 

 between Tribura and the birds we have hitherto termed Dume- 

 ticoia, he proposes using the term Tribura for the whole lot. 

 I think this decision is a very correct one, and much better 

 than inventing a new generic term. There is a rather stronger 

 development of first primary in Tribura, and it is said never 

 to be spotted, but these differences are not important. We 

 have both spotted and unspotted Turdus, and one Locustella is 



