42 ON THE SPECIES OF HYPSIPETES 



him, De Montbeillard* described both the Merle cendre de Madagascar f (the 

 latter giving it the additional name of V Ourovang) and the Merle de VIsle de 

 Bourbon. Brisson also figured each species J ; and Daubenton included the 

 Ourovang in his grand series of plates §. This also received the names 

 Turdus madagascariensis and T. urovang from the compilers P. L. S. Miiller|| 

 and J. F. Gmelin^ respectively; w^hile the other, unnoticed by Miiller, was 

 by Gmelin called T, borbonicus^^. Shortly after, Latham followed Gmehn ; 

 and then for many years no further attention was paid to either bird. 



The genus Hypsipetes, founded in 1831 by Vigors ff with the then new 

 but now well-known H. psaroides of the Himalayas as its type, was deemed 

 by him to belong to the Shrikes ; and in the same family Sykes also placed 

 it when, in 1832, he described JJ a second species, H. ganeesa, from the 

 Deccan ; but by general consent it has of late years been referred to the Tur- 

 didce, and frequently included in the somewhat vague subfamily Pycnonotince. 

 Whether this last is a proper determination is a question T shall not here 

 discuss, nor shall I dwell on any of the Indian forms of the genus further 

 than is necessary for my present purpose, since I understand from Mr. Sharpe 

 that he has been studying them, and the results of his labour will doubtless 

 be communicated to the ornithological public with his accustomed promptness 

 and ability. 



Somewhere about the year 1835 a specimen, out of an indiscriminate 

 collection of bird-skins formed at the Cape of Good Hope, in New Holland, 



■^ Histoire !Naturelle des Oiseaux^ iii. pp. 380^ 395. 



t The ^^ Hourrouue'' { = Hourrouve) of De Elacourt^ which he says is a kind of "merle/^ is 

 probably this bird. Hist, de la grande Isle Madagascar^ p. 166 (ed. 1661). 



X Tom. cit. pi. xxiv. fig. 3, and pi. xxv. fig. 2. 



§ Planches enluminees d^ Histoire Naturelle^ No. 557. fig. 2. 



II Natursystem^ Suppl. p. 139. 1[ Systema Naturae, i. p. 836. 



^^ Tom, cit. p. 821. 

 tt Proc. Comm. Sc. & Corresp. Zool. Soc. part i. p. 43. Xt ^P' ^^^- P^^ ii- P' 86. 



