294 Novelties. — CoUocalla innominaia. 



eggs are beyond a joke^ and the eg-g-s for which I paid long' 

 prices years ag'o, are now only fit to be thrown away^ since 1 

 cannot tell which species they belonged to. 



gokltics ? 



In puttinof on record the few following" supposed new species, 

 it may be well ag-ain to remind my readers that our Indian 

 libraries are very defective, our museums even more so, and 

 that it is impossible for us here to make certain that any species 

 new to us, may not have been already described elsewhere, 

 from specimens obtained beyond our limits ; the birds are how- 

 ever new to our Avifauna, and of such, even should they prove in 

 any case not to be new to science, a careful orig-inal description 

 such as we give in every case can scarcely fail to be usefuL 



CoUocalia innominata, Sp. Nov, 



Whng, 5"5. A well Tnarhed blachish brown cap ; wings and tail, black ; 

 rest of upper parts, sepia brown ; lower surface, mouse brown. 



That this edible-nest swiftlet has been described or intended 

 to be described, under one of the many names now ranked as 

 synonymes o^ fuciphaga, Thunberg, is not impossible, but it 

 certainly is not admitted as a distinct species at present, and 

 that it is so, is clear. In the diagnosis I have described, our bird 

 (which is from the Andamans) and need only add under this 

 head that in the flesh the length is 5-25 and the expanse 13. 



Now this is not fuciphaga, Thun.^ of which the following is 

 the original description, (Trans, A. K. Stock.) 



" Corpus mpra atrtim immaculatum, vix nitens, subtus cineretim., 

 vel sorclide fuscum sen albidum a gula usque ad basin caudce ; 

 pollices circiter quatMor longum." (Figured Rumphius Herb. 

 Amb. VI., t. 75, f. 3 and 4.) Now our bird has the body in 

 no sense black above but sepia brown, and tho dark cap, moreover, 

 is most conspicuous and could not have been overlooked. More- 

 over, it is distinct mouse-brown below, not grey or dirty white 

 or ding}^ "fnsais," and it is well over five inches long. 



Again Tliunberg goes on to say " cauda rotundata, supra in- 

 fraque a.tra." What the first two woi'ds may mean, I cannot 

 tell, since all the four species of CoUocalia lying before me now. 



