260 



So much has been written of late (vide S. F., VIL, 37 ; IX.., 

 209 and 234) in regard to the Broad-tailed Reedbird, that 

 I feel a little nervous about inflicting a further yarn in regard 

 to this insignificant-looking little skulker on the readers of 

 Steay Feathers. But looks, fortunately, even in this world 

 are not everything, and trumpery a little bird as it may 

 appear to the uninitiated outsider, to the ornithological adept, 

 who has been duly admitted within the arcana of the science, 

 it must, until we know much more of it than has yet been 

 put on record, continue an object of much interest. 



I see that my friend Captain Legge has discovered, in the 

 British Museum drawers, a specimen from Ceylon collected 

 by Mr. Cumming, clearly pertaining to the same species as that 

 obtained by Mr. Bourdillon and Captain Butler; but I also see 

 that Captain Legge only doubtfully identifies this species with 

 Sclwnicola platyurus of Jerdon, on the ground that the type 

 of this having been lost, and the description being somewhat 

 curt, " it will be a very difficult matter to determine what 

 Jerdon's bird really was." 



As a matter of fact, however, we have far greater certainty 

 on this latter point than we have in regard to at least three- 

 fourths of all the species named by Linne, Gmelin, Pallas, 

 Scopoli, and in fact the mass of the older ornithologists. 

 Their types too are lost. Their descriptions, alike generic and 

 specific, are far more curt, more unsatisfactory, and less 

 accurate than Jerdon's, while their indications of the localities, 

 whence their specimens were procured, are seldom as exact as 

 those furnished in this case by him. 



As a fact we have a seizes of generic characters which, with 

 one single exception, fit our bird to the T. This one exception, 

 the number of the tail feathers, is explained by the fact that 

 the outer tail feather on each side is hidden by the lower tail- 

 coverts, and is, therefore, extremely likely to have escaped 

 notice. 



We have a specific description, which, though rather brief, 

 also fits our birds perfectly. 



Lastly, our birds have been procured both due north and due 

 south of the locality in which Jerdon obtained his, and in the 

 same range of hills. 



Lastly, we have a moral certainty that no other species, to 

 which Jerdon's description would possibly apply, occurs any- 

 where in the district whence he procured his specimen. 



There is no earthly doubt in my opinion that our bird is 

 Schamicola platyurus of Jerdon ; the only point for decision is, 



