ON TWO SPECIES OF batkachostOmus. S55\ 



is only at all conspicuous above the terminal one. There 

 is a black spot with a buffy white apex at the extreme tips of 

 the tail feathers. The lateral tail feathers are very similar, but 

 are slightly more warmly tinted. The chin and throat is a 

 dingy pale rufescent brown, most of the feathers of the sides of 

 the throat with small blackish brown subterminal spots, beyond 

 which the extreme tips are buffy. The tips of all the feathers 

 of the base of the throat pure white, margined above with 

 a black line, and forming a conspicuous gorget; below this the 

 breast is dull brown, the feathers powdered towards the tips 

 with rufous buff, and some of the lowermost with large white 

 tips, bounded above with a black line as in the case of the 

 feathers of the base of the throat above described. The 

 abdomen, flanks, vent, and lower tail-coverts are a dingy rufes- 

 cent white, most of the feathers more or less pure white towards 

 the tips, and where pure white, exhibiting numerous black 

 vermicellations. The wing lining is dingy, pale, rufescent 

 brown. The bill is quite as long as in Batrachostomus javensis, 

 but the point is less produced, the culmen is not so strongly 

 Carinated, and the sides are less bowed out than in that species, 

 and of course it has the tarsus feathered, which javensis has 

 not. I can find so little on record about this genus that 

 it is quite possible that it may be an undescribed stage of 

 plumage oimonliger, but looking to the dimensions, and especially 

 those of the wings, I can hardly believe this to be the case, and 

 certainly so far as plumage goes it differs about as widely from 

 Blyth's description as it possibly could. 



I ow T e the specimen I possess to Mr. Nevill. It is the same 

 one, I believe, to which Mr. Holdsworth refers as being the only 

 one that he has seen. 



For the present,, until I can learn something further about it 

 and moniliger, it stands in my catalogue as B. pimctatus. 



A. 0. H. 



©it lie g&itoit of t|e Cjmttii (Cljota) ifoojm* pbisioir, 

 3. ®. frontier of Icugal. 



By V. Ball, M.A., Geological Stjkvey of India. 



Introduction. 



Before entering upon the special subject of this paper I pro- 

 pose, in accordance with the practice established in " Stray 

 .Feathers," to attempt to convey to my readers some idea of the 



