2-1 H. H. Godwin- Austell — Sixth List of Birds from the [No. 1, 



Above " slightly brownish ferruginous," Hume, Vol. V, or " rather 

 dark ferruginous brown," Hume, Vol. IV. = " pale reddish brown," Jerdon. 



Beneath " dull rusty," Hume, Vol. V, or " Brownish buff deeper 

 coloured &c.," Hume, Vol. IV, = " pale fulvescent," Jerdon. 



Under wing-coverts "pale yellowish fawn," Hume, Vol. V, = "pale 

 ferruginous," Jerdon. 



When such distinctions as these are made the basis on which to found 

 new species, it is I think advisable to wait, and if possible compare with 

 the type. But in altirostris we have one very marked character which Dr. 

 Jerdon did not overlook, viz., " forehead and streak over the eye hoary 

 grey." No two men agree in describing various shades of brown, olive- 

 green &c., an important element being the kind of light the skins are 

 placed in, and individual sensitiveness to colour. It is satisfactory to know 

 that the type of altirostris has been found, otherwise we should have been 

 left in a cloud of doubt regarding even its very existence, for in Stray 

 Feathers, Vol. Ill, p. 116, an idea is thrown out that Dr. Jerdon had got 

 hold of a variety of Pyctorhis sinensis when he was at Thyet-Myo. Even 

 had the type of altirostris been lost, I hold it would have been better to 

 consider it as re-discovered in Assam, and then have waited for it to turn 

 up again on the Irrawady (where I am sure it will be found*) before giving 

 the Assam bird a new title. 



427c. AcTiNUEA E&EETONi, Gould. Var. Khasiana, Godwin-Austen. 

 This is referred to in my list of Dafla Hill Birds and is the species 

 noted as near Hgertoni in my First List. 



437«. MALACOCERcrs (Lataedia) eobiginosus, Godwin-Austen, 

 described in J. A. S. B., 1874, p. 164, is the JPyctorhis longirostris, 

 Hodgson, of Moore's Catalogue of Birds in the Indian Museum. I have 

 compared my specimens with the type and only observe that those from 

 Eastern Assam are larger. I was misled into describing it under a new 

 name by a specimen which is only a slight variety of Fyc. sinensis, label- 

 led wrongly P. longirostris, in the British Museum. At the time I described 

 M. robiginosus the Indian Museum birds were still packed away and not 

 to be got at, and I trusted to the correctness of Mr. Gray's identification 

 of the British Museum bird. I was further misled by longirostris being 

 placed in the genus Fyctorhis, with which it has no affinity, but is a true 

 Malacocercus. 



* It has been re-found by Mr. Gates, see Stray Feathers, V, p. 249.— Ed. 



