1892.] MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE INDIAN DARTER. 291 



paler ground. Underneath the primaries are yellowish, with a large 

 black discal spot containing a white point; a submarginal dark 

 lunular line. Secondaries underneath reddish brown, thickly 

 speckled with black ; a white discal point, and a transverse, lunular 

 brown line. Thorax brown, with posteriorly a number of white 

 hairs. Abdomen reddish. 



Expanse 54 mm. 



Hub. Petropolis, Brazil. 



AuTOMERIS TAMPHILUS, Sp. nOV. 



Primaries above fawn-colour, tinged with reddish ; the outer 

 margin yellowish ; the basal and outer transverse lines a little paler 

 than the ground-colour; the outer line extending from near the 

 apex on the costal margin to the inner margin at three fourths from 

 its base. Secondaries yellowish red, the outer margin paler ; the 

 ocellus not very large, brown, circled with black and then with 

 yellow ; in its centre a minute greyish spot with a white streak ; a 

 submarginal black line inwardly edged with yellow. Head and 

 thorax dark brown. Abdomen reddish. 



Expanse male 90 mm. 



Hab. Rio Janeiro, Brazil. 



5. Notes on the Anatomy and Osteology of the Indian 

 Darter [Plotus melanog aster) . By Frank E. Beddard, 

 M.A., F.R.S.E., Prosector to the Society. 



[Eeceived March 15, 1892.] 



The structure of the soft parts of both Plotus anhinga and 

 P. melanogaster has been fairly completely described by my two 

 predecessors. Prof. Garrod ^ and Mr. Forbes ^. Prof. Garrod has also 

 given a brief account of some of the peculiarities of the third species, 

 P. levaUlanti, in a later paper ^. So far as I am aware, the only 

 existing account of the visceral anatomy of P. melanogaster is to be 

 found in Mr. Forbes's notes upon this bird. More recently Prof. 

 Fiirbringer, of Jena, has contributed * to our knowledge of this 

 genus in his great work upon the shoulder-girdle of birds. Having 

 recently had the opportunity — afforded me by the death, on December 

 31 st of the present year, of a female P. melanogaster, wtiich arrived at 

 the Gardens on May 1883 — of disserting an example of that species, 

 I have been able to make some slight additions to what is already 

 on record about the bird. As will be easily imagined, I have only 

 to confirm the careful work of Mr. Forbes, so far as that goes ; 



1 " Notes on the Anatomy of Plottia anhinga," P. Z. S. 1876, p. 335. 



^ " On soine Points in the Anatomy of the Indian Darter {Plotus melanogas- 

 ter), and on the Mechanism of the Neck in the Darters {Plotus), in connexion 

 with their Habits," P. Z. S. 1882, p. 208. 



^ " Note on Points in the Anatomy of Levaillant's Darter {Plotus levaUlanti)," 

 P.Z.S. 1878,p. 679. 



* UnterBuchungen zur Morphologie und Systematik der Vogel, &c., 1888. 



