OUR INDIAN CERTHIIN^E, 7S 



is a great mistake, as a good series at once shews. As far as 

 my own observation goes, the sexes of the Certhiince are alike 

 in plumage. Even the young and old are very similar. The 

 earth brown tint of C. nipalensis commences from the base of 

 the lower mandible ; and the chin and throat, which are gener- 

 ally protected from getting soiled in most birds, are in this 

 species as dark as any part of the breast. The idea that the 

 brown lower surface is merely produced by the feathers being 

 soiled, is against the rule with regard to Creepers, which pre- 

 serve the purity of their plumage in a remarkable manner 

 even near large manufacturing towns. * The colour on the 

 breast of C. nipalensis is, as Mr. Blyth remarked, a fast colour. 



" The tail of this species is more rufous than in that of 

 any of the others ; in other respects the coloration of the upper 

 parts is similar to that of the two species next to be described. 

 C. nipalensis f has a large and rather strong bill compared with 

 those of the others." 



Now in all this I agree, except as regards the nomenclature. 



I concede at once that Mr. Hodgson's drawing (original 

 series,) No. 289 (pencil) 598 (red ink), labelled " Certhia 

 himalayana" and below " Certhia nipalensis, Nob, 1825," and also 

 " Certhia familiaris. Common Creeper, Nipalese variety," re- 

 presents the brown-breasted bird. This is clear and unmistak- 

 able, but this drawing was never published, and does not in 

 any way affect the question. 



As far as I have been able to discover, Mr. Hodgson never 

 himself published the name nipalensis with any description. 



Very early he seems to have come to the conclusion that 

 nipalensis was only a variety of familiaris, and later he iden- 

 tified it with himalayana, and under this name it appears in 

 his own printed Catalogue of Nepalese birds, dated (in MSS.) 

 Darjeeling, May 1846. 



I do not think Mr. Hodgson ever published any description 

 of nipalensis, first because I can find none, nor any reference 

 to any such publication in any of his notes ; and secondly be- 

 cause Mr. G. R. Gray, as late as 1849, (Gen. B. Appx., p. 7, 

 No. 143) only quotes nipalensis, Hodgs., on Blyth's authority, 

 and so too Moore and Horsfield (very accurate, as a rule, for 

 the time at which they wrote, in their synonymy), as late 

 as 1858 (Cat. Mus. H.'E. I. C, 718, No. 1044) only refer for 

 the authority of the- name to those passages in the J. A. 13. B., 

 and Ann. N. H, in which Blyth gives the species as nipalensis 

 of Hodgson. 



* I remember well an instance of this in a Creeper that used to build annually 

 against the wall of Mr. W. Brackenridge*s House st Enfield in a Virginian Creeper 

 and which was as purely coloured as a real rustic. — Ep, 



f i. e., discolor. — Ed. 



