NOVELTIES. 389 



fWwttie*. 



Hypotaenidia abnormis, Sp. Nov. ? 



Entire upper surface, (excluding wings,) blackish, without any white 



bands, but each feather margined with dull olive brown ; only the 



abdomen and sides (and ivings) with white bars ; chin and throat as 



far as end of maxilla white; entire sides of head and neck, and breast 



uniform dark-greyish brown ; bill at front, 1"2. 



Mr. F. A. de Roepstorff has just sent me a Bail recently 

 obtained at Corbyn's Cove, South Audamans, which appears to 

 me to be undescribed. 



At first I made up my mind that it must be the young of 

 II. obscuriora, nobis, the Andamanese representative of H. stria- 

 tus, but on further consideration I believe that this is not the 

 case, and that the bird represents a distinct species. 



H. striatus is no doubt distinct from H. obscuriora ; this, after 

 the examination of nearly fifty specimens of each, I believe to 

 be certain ; the differences pointed out by me, Vol. II., p. 302, 

 appear to be constant ; but they are very nearly allied species, and 

 their various stages of plumage, from youth to age, must be, 

 one has prima facie a right to infer, strictly analogous. Now 

 of H. striatus, we have in the Indian and in my own museum 

 specimens of every age, and at no stage, after the birds are 

 fully fledged, do they ever appear to want the white banding 

 or spotting on the upper surface. 



The present bird wants this altogether ; its upper surface is 

 like that of Rallus aqitaticus, or indicus, only much darker. 



I attach less value to the facts, that the bill is very much 

 shorter, proportionally deeper, and has the nasal groove pro- 

 longed much more nearly to the point ; these differences might 

 be due to age. 



The plumage too is firm and compact as in an adult, but then 

 the whole of the quills and their larger lower coverts are par- 

 tially still in parchment, conveying to me rather the idea of a 

 young than a moulting bird. It is on the peculiar character 

 of the entire upper surface, so different from that of the young 

 of striatus, and the uniform dark greyish brown of the breast, 

 that my belief in the distinctness of the species is chiefly based, 

 though it must be admitted that, taken as a whole, the specimen 

 does not look at all like a young bird. 



Dimensions. — (From the skin.) Male — Length, 9*0; wing, 

 (primaries still imperfectly developed) 4*5 ; tail, 1*5 ; tarsus, 



