BIRDS OF TENASSERTBI. 235 



clinging sideways to these as many birds do. They are entirely 

 insectivorous. — W. D.] 



I think it quite impossible either to retain this species in the 

 genus Pnoepyga, to which Major Godwin-Austen assigned it, or 

 to include it in Turdinus, to which it is, in my opinion, far more 

 closely affined. I cannot agree with Major Godwin-Austen 

 that it is even at all closely related to the extremely aberrant 

 Pnoepyga longimudata. 



I know no genus in which it can be included, and I propose 

 for it the generic name 



Turdinulus, Gen. Nov. 



/ Like Turdinus, but with the bill proportionately longer, and 

 much more compressed at the base, and with the tail extremely 

 short. 



Plumage, soft and full, very full and lax on rump and flanks. 



Bill large, straight, much compressed throughout its entire 

 length ; culmen almost perfectly straight, curved downwards just 

 at the tip ; upper mandible projecting appreciably beyond 

 lower mandible ; a notch in the upper mandible ; nostrils large 

 in a triangular basal fossa, nearly covered in by a membrane- 

 ous shelf. 



Wings short, about three times the length of the bill from fore- 

 head to point, very much rounded ; 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th sub- 

 equal and longest, sometimes 5th a shade shorter, sometimes 8th 

 a shade shorter or longer. First four quills graduated, 1st 

 quill longer than bill from forehead. 



Legs and feet very strong ; mid toe without claw equal to 

 bill at front ; tarsus rather longer ; hind toe and claw rather 

 shorter ; outer toe longer than inner toe ; outer toe and claw a 

 little longer than inner toe and claw. 



Tail very short rounded, about half as long again as bill from 

 forehead. 



I have not had the good fortune to meet with Major Godwin- 

 Austen's Pnoepyga chocolatina, and I cannot therefore say whether 

 that species is congeneric with the bird so common at Mooleyit, 

 which I identify as Turdinulus roberti. 



? 333.— Troglodytes -? 



Davison is of opinion that he saw some species of this genus 

 ( which he knows well, having watched and shot nipalensis re- 

 peatedly about our own hill here at Simla) a little north of 

 Pahpoon, but failed to secure a specimen. It might, however, 

 have been a Pnoepyga, because once, some years later, when at 

 Mooleyit, he saw another bird which he thought was a Troglo* 

 dytes, and on shooting it, it proved to be Pnoepyga pusilla. 



