100 NOVELTIES. 



plate, do not apply. He thinks Sonnerat described and figured 

 either a made up specimen, or Cuculus capensis, Gmel. Lord 

 Walden, (Tr. Z. S. IX., pt. 2, 161) equally agrees that these 

 names do not apply, but thinks Sonnerat's account and figure 

 aoree well with Vieillot's Cuculus solitarius and that Gmelin's 

 C. capensis, a cuckoo in hepatic plumage, can scarcely be 

 determined. 



A. 0. H. 



o i) t U i t s ? 



Siva castanicauda. 



Like S. strigula, but rather larger and bill considerably larger, and with 

 the greater portion of both ivebs of the central tail feathers and of the 

 inner webs of the next feathers, a pure rich chestnut. 



The Hill Tenasserim representative of our Himalayan Siva 

 strigula is so extremely like the latter, that I, and doubtless 

 others, have for long overlooked its essential point of difference. 

 I noticed that they seemed rather finer birds and that they some- 

 how did not look precisely the same, but it never occurred to 

 me that they were distinct. 



To-day happening to have out a series of over 60 specimens 

 of the Himalayan bird, from Simla, Mussouri, Almorah, Nynee- 

 tal, Nepal and Sikhim, it occurred to me to compare the Moolyit 

 birds with these. At once the difference was clear. 



Whereas strigula has about the basal 1 £ inches of the inner 

 webs of the central feathers deep ferruginous verging on 

 maroon, the Tenasserim birds have the whole of both webs of 

 the central tail feathers, the inner web to within 0'5 and the outer 

 to within 0*8 of the tip, pure, rich chestnut. Moreover, in the 

 Moolyit birds, the feathers next the central ones have almost 

 an equal portion of the inner webs and the basal portions of the 

 outer webs of the same colour. 



In other respects, the plumage seems to agree, but I think 

 the orange of the crown is rather more intense than in strigula. 



The following are the measurements, &c, recorded in the flesh 

 of a bird killed at Moolyit, 7th February 1877 :— 



Length, 6*6 ; expanse, 8*5 ; tail, 2*9 ; wing, 2*8 ; tarsus, 

 1*05 : bill, from gape, 0*75 ; weight, 0*7502. The legs and feet 

 were dingy glaucous green ; the upper mandible dark brown ; 

 the lower fleshy ; the irides deep brown, 



