On the Genus Paradoxornis. 



63 



than latitude chiefly influences the natural productions of any given 

 climate ; and this fact has been so completely verified by the ob- 

 servations of various scientific travellers, that I need not here in- 

 sist upon it. With the knowledge of such a fact, the discovery of 

 birds within the temperate and colder regions of the Himalaya re- 

 sembling in form those of very different latitudes, but of similar 

 temperature, will not excite much surprise. Indeed it is in regions 

 so vast and little explored as the country of the Himalaya, Nepal, 

 &c, that we may expect to meet with new modifications of forms, 

 which lead us to wonder at the exhaustless variety of nature. The 

 curious bird whose characters are now given, is one of the most sin- 

 gular and navel form which has come under my notice for some 

 years. I have to regret that no information with regard to its ha- 

 bits and natural economy have reached me. I have only as yet 

 obtained a single specimen, and its affinities are so obscure, that I 

 have not been able, with any degree of confidence, to assign its 

 place in the natural system. I must, therefore, content myself with 

 describing its character, and leaving it to the scientific readers of 

 " The Magazine of Zoology and Botany," to draw their own infe- 

 rences. 



Genus Paradoxornis, Gould, 



Gen. Char. — Bill of greater depth than length, the upper man- 

 dible strongly compressed, with a sharp and boldly arched culmen, 

 bending to a point, and without a notch, the cutting edge of the 

 upper mandible deeply incurved towards the tip, and produced at 

 the base ; nostrils small and round, situated outside the horn of the 

 mandible ; under mandible broad at its base, stout, and indented so 

 as to fit the edges of the upper mandible ; just before and beneath 

 the eye, spring several strong bristles ; the same occur, but are more 

 feeble, at the base of the lower mandible ; wings short and rounded, 



