122 Description of a New Species of Cotumba. [Feb. 



mate of the relative age of part of the great trap formation of the 

 N. W. of India, which the President of the Geological Society in the 

 anniversary address to that body in 1833, stated to be quite unknown: 

 " no vestiges of secondary or tertiary formations having been detected 

 within the region described." 



IV. — Description of a New Species of Columba. By B. H. Hodgson, 



Esq. Resident in Nepal. 



The following description of a new species was originally sent to the 

 Society six years ago, but it does not appear to have been published. 

 It has since been described as new by the Zoological Society in 1832. 

 With the description went a drawing, coloured, and large as nature. 

 Owing to the tardy appearance of the Society's quarto volume, the papers 

 that did appear there had been forestalled : thus red-billed Erolia, but 

 also my Circseetus Nipalensis, take precedence, by two years, of Gould's 

 Ibidorhyncha Struthersii and his Heematornis Undulatus, which are the 

 same species under new names. Both birds are types of new genera : 

 see the Journal of the Zoological Society under date Dec. 27th, 1831, 

 quoted, pp. 170 and 174. I described them both two years and some 

 months previously : as the dates of the papers and the proceedings of 

 your Society can prove*. 



Order Rasores. Family, Columbid^e. Genus Columba. Species new. 

 Columba Nipalensis, (mihi.) 



This elegant species is found in the woods of the valley of Nepal. 

 It is seen exclusively in the wild state, and is very shy, seldom or 

 never entering the cultivated fields for the purpose of feeding, but 

 adhering almost always to the woods, and living upon their produce, in 

 the shape of grass, seeds, and berries. 



Except in the breeding season, it is very gregarious, and it breeds, 

 I am told, only once a year, laying its eggs in June and July. I cannot 

 bring it exactly under any of the A BCDarianf allotments of the numer- 



* We can offer no further explanation of the loss of the author's MS. than 

 was before given (J. A. S. IV.) neither can we find the plate to which he al- 

 ludes. But we take this opportunity of circulating a lithograph of the Erolia 

 and bearded Vulture described in vol. IV., which may serve as a peace offering 

 to the justly offended author. — Ed. 



■f" A. orbits and tarsi plumose. 



B. orbits plumose, tarsi naked, tail even. 



C. orbits plumose, tarsi naked, tail wedged. 



D. orbits naked, 



a. feathers of the neck and quills simple. 



b. feathers of the neck notched at tips. 



c. quills bifid at tips. 



