TRICHASTOMA MINOR. " 535 



abusing the steel for striking it ; I for one am always quite 

 ready to give and take in all good humour — and in the meantime 

 he is too much of a man to allow literary controversies to dis- 

 turb his equanimity. 



Au reste, the " responsible" Editor of the Ibis may find it 

 worth while to devote thirty pages of his valuable journal to 

 a personal attack upon me, but I, the " irresponsible " Editor of 

 Stray Feathers, feel that in sacrificing as many lines to a per- 

 sonal reply to Lord Walden I have fully taxed my readers' 

 patience ; and while still continuing ready to point out in a kindly- 

 spirit the errors into which His Lordship's laudable desire to 

 distinguish himself too often betrays him, cannot venture to 

 spare another single liue to a personal controversy with that 

 exalted individual. 



ALLAN HUME. 



September 27t/i, 1874. 



Trichastoma minor, Sp. Nov. 



Resembles T. Abbotti, Blyth, but is conspicuously smaller {wing, 2*5 

 against 2*8 to 3 in Abbotti), has a more than proportionately slenderer 

 bill, a longer tail, and is everywhere more rufescent. 



According to the diagnosis of the genus Trichastoma given by 

 Jerdon, taken, I believe, from Blyth's original definition, the 

 4th quill ought to be the longest, and the tail nearly even. 

 As a matter of fact, in Abbotti the tail is perceptibly rounded, 

 and the 5th quill is always the longest, with the 6th and 7th 

 sub-equal, and the 4th noticeably, in fact fully 0*1, shorter than 

 the 5th. 



The present species has the tail even more rounded than 

 Abbotti, and noticeably longer. The proportions of the 

 primaries in both are very similar. 



The following are the dimensions of a male taken from the 

 dry skin : — 



Length, 5*3 ; wing, 25 ; tail, from vent, 2*3 ; bill, at front, 

 0*55 (against 075 in Abbotti, similarly measured) ; tarsus, l'O; 

 the 5th quill is the longest; the 6th, sub-equal; the 4th, - 08, 

 the 3rd, 0'3, the 2nd, U - 7, and the 1st, l'l shorter than the 

 5th. 



The exterior lateral tail feathers on either side 0*3 to 0'4 

 shorter than the central pair. 



The legs, feet, and lower mandible appear to have been a 

 pale fleshy yellow ; the upper mandible a moderately dark 

 brown. 



H- 



