NOTES ON SOME BURMESE BIRDS. 251 



Since writing the above, I find that Mr. Hume had already 

 published a description of the Bhotan Dooar's specimen under 

 the name of grheigularis. This name was indeed on the cover 

 of the bird lent to me, but I considered it only a manuscript 

 title, and consequently have not referred to it above. 



That Mr. Hume was prima facie justified in describing his 

 bird as a new species no one will be prepared to deny on 

 comparing his bird with Jerdon's description of altirostris, 

 which must have been written from memory. 



[ I retain my opinion that neither my bird nor Mr. Oates' 

 is the true altirostris of Jerdon ; the grounds for this opinion 

 are fully stated, ante 116. I daresay Dr. Jerdon procured 

 this bird of ours in Burmah ; I dare say he sent it home; he 

 may eveu have sent it home as his altirostris, but that this is 

 not the species that he actually described, I consider almost 

 certain. Many descriptions contained in the B. of In. are 

 doubtless not satisfactory, but these will, in every case, be found 

 to be borrowed and not original, and Dr. Jerdon's own original 

 descriptions are, I should say, always extremely accurate. — 

 A. 0. H. 1 



390 s<?#.— Staehyrhis guttatus, Tick. J. A. S. B., 

 1859, p. 450. 



See Ibis, 1876, p. 353. Turdinus guttatus, Tick. 



The acquisition of a specimen of this rare bird enables me to 

 state that the species is nothing but a Staehyrhis.* In the 

 form of the bill, the large process over the nostril, leaving the 



* I must dissent from this view most emphatically. Mr. Oates, according to my 

 idea, is fundamentally wrong in his whole contention. 



1st. — The bill of Turdinus guttatus is in no degree like that of Staehyrhis nigriceps, 

 the type of the genus. The essential character of the latter is to have the ridge 

 of the culmen straight. A character exactly reproduced in Heterorhynchus Sumei, 

 a species much the same size as T. guttatus, and with very similar spotting on the 

 sides of the neck. On the other hand the leading character of T. guttatus is its deep 

 bill with notably curved culmen. 



2nd. — The bills of Staehyrhis and Timalia are not in any sense " quite the same, " 

 except for the nostrils. On the contrary in Timalia pileata, the type of the genus, 

 the culmen is conspicuously curved, in Staehyrhis conspicuously straight. 



3rd. — The coloration of T. guttatus seems to me to have no affinity for that of 

 Staehyris nigriceps, but its affinity for that of Drijmocataphus nigricapitatus 

 is patent. 



The bills of Turdinus guttatus and Timalia pileata are strikingly like each other 

 in outline, but that of the latter is much more compressed and less massive. I think 

 that the bill of Mixornis rubricapilla. considerably magnified would convey the 

 best idea of the bill of T. guttatus. Timalia poliocephala of Tern, is also closely 

 affined to our present species. 



The .well bowed culmen and deep comparatively massive bill of guttatus separates 

 it equally from both crispifrons and brevicaudatus, and from Drymocataphus, 

 Malacopteron, Triehastoma, Sfc, while other differences render it doubtful whether 

 it could be united with Timalia. I hope before long to furnish a review of all the 

 Indian, Indo-Burmese and Malayan ( or rather Malay Peninsular ) species of this 

 group, and I defer till then further remarks in regard to the true position of 

 Turdinus guttatus. — Ed, S, F, 



