Genus ELAPHRORXIS*. 



Bill straight, compressed, rather slender ; culmen straight at the base, the tip notched. 

 Nostrils oblong and oblique ; rictal bristles feeble. Wings short and rounded, the 5th, Cth, and 

 7th quills subequal and longest, the 1st about half their length. Tail exceeding the wing by 

 the length of the hind toe, of 12 feathers, lax and graduated. Tarsus longer than the middle 

 toe and its claw, and covered with long obsolete scales ; anterior toes slender, the hallux stout. 



Plumage lax and soft ; the feathers of the back much lengthened. Nape furnished with 

 abnormal hair-like feathers. 



ELAPHRORNIS PALLISERI. 



(PALLISER'S ANT-THRUSH.) 

 (Peculiar to Ceylon.) 



Brackypteryx palliseri, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1852, xx. p. 178; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 102 

 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 2G9; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, 

 p. 443, pi. xviii. 



Kelaartia pailiseri, Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 312. no. 4668 (1869). 



<< ad. supra brunneus, pileo saturatiore et magis olivascente : tectricibus alarum bruuneis dorsi colore lavatis : remi- 

 gibus brunneis, extus olivascentibus : cauda saturate brunnea, rectricibus clariore bruuneo lavatis : loris cineras- 

 centi-albia : linea superciliari cinerascente mdistineta : regione parotica et pluniis infraocularibus brunneis, 

 anguste albido lineatis : gulsi pallide eervino-rufa : pectore olivascente flavo lavato, lateraliter cineraceo adumbrato : 

 corporis lateribus, tibiis et Biibcaudalibus bruuneis: abdomine medio pallide flavo : subalaribus olivascenti-bruuneis : 

 remigibus intra brunneis, intus pallide marginatis : rostro nigro, niaudibula pallidiore : pedibus purpurascenti- 

 brunneis : iride d pallide rubra, 2 flavescenti-cervina. 



Ail nit mall- and female. Length 6-4 to 6-75 inches ; wing 2-35 to 2-G5 ; tail 2'5 to 2 - 7 ; tarsus 1-0 to 1-1 ; middle toe 

 and claw 0-8 to OS5 ; bill to gape 073 to OS". The female is the smaller of the sexes. 



Male. Iris clear red ; bill black, slate at the base beneath ; legs and feet deep neutral brown or purplish brown, claws 

 pale brownish horn. 



F, ,,inl,i. Iris buff. 



Above olive-brown, darkest on the forehead, and changing to rusty brown on the rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail, the 

 centre of the tail-feathers darker than the margins ; wings dark brown, the outer webs of the quills rusty olive- 

 brown ; lores just beneath the eye, as also the ear-coverts, blackish brown, the latter with pale stria; ; a faint light 

 stripe passing from the bill over the eye ; orbits greyish ; chin whitish, changing into buff-yellow on the gorge 

 and upper part of throat, which blends into the olivaceous slate-colour of the chest and sides of breast ; lower 

 flanks and under tail-coverts rusty brown ; centre of the breast and the belly flavescent, blending into the 

 surrounding colour. 



Young. Iris, in the male pale reddish buff ; in the female white. 



Obs. A question to be decided by future obesrvation is whether the iris of the female ever turns red. I have one 

 specimen with a faint inner reddish circle ; but I have never shot one with a red iris like that of the male, the 



* From kXatypos, nimble, active. 



