NOVELTIES. 101 



Muscitrea cyanea. 



Bead dull cohalt blue ; rest of upper parts, chin, throat and breast deep 

 indigo blue; vent, lower tail coverts and more or less of INNER 

 webs of four exterior pairs of tail feathers, pure white. 



I can find no record of this clearly Pachycephaline form, 

 and if the bird is not new, it must, I think, have been misplaced. 



But before dealing with the species, I must explain the use 

 of the generic term. 



Muscitrea is a genus of Blyths, established in February 

 1847 (J. A. S. B., XVL, 121). The specimen, on which he 

 founded it, was destroyed, and later he could not remember 

 what the affinities of this new genus of his really were. 



The following is the passage in which he defined the genus 

 and described the species which was its type : — 



" Muscitrea, nobis. Bill of moderate length, somewhat coni- 

 cal, a little compressed, the upper mandible obtusely angulated, 

 with the curvature of its outline increasing to the tip, which 

 overhangs that of the lower mandible, and is slightly emargina- 

 ted ; the extreme tip of the lower mandible also curves a little 

 upwards ; gonys straight and scarcely inflated ; the nostrils 

 small, with anterior oval aperture, and beset at base with short 

 reflected feathers and some incumbent hairs ; a few fine hair- 

 like bristles also at the gape, of moderate length. Tarsi 

 moderately slender, as long as the middle toe with its claw ; the 

 toes and claws suited for perching. Wings long and broad, 

 reaching more than half-way down the tail, having the fourth 

 and fifth primaries equal and longest, the third rather shorter, 

 the second equalling the eighth, and the first about half the 

 length of the third. Tail moderately developed, its feathers of 

 nearly equal length. The general plumage inclines to be dense, 

 and is unadorned with bright colours and glossless in the 

 only known species. 



" M . cinerea, nobis. Length about six inches ; of wing nearly 

 three and a half ; and tail two and a half: bill to forehead 

 (through the feathers) five-eighths, and to gape three-quarters : 

 tarsi three-quarters of an inch. General colour ashy-brown 

 above, greyer on the head, and tinged with fulvous on the ex- 

 terior margins of the secondaries ; beneath albescent, a little 

 brown across the breast : bill light horn-colour ; and feet have 

 probably been bluish-leaden. From the island of Ramree, 

 Arracau, where discovered by Capt. Abbott/' 





