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PARADOXORNIS FLAVIROSTRIS, gfouK 



Paradoxornis. 



Paradoxornis Jlavirostris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc. pt. iv. p. 17. — lb. Mag. of Zool. and Bot. vol. i. p. 62. — lb. 



Icones Avium. — Horsf. and M'Clell. Proc. of Zool. Soc. part vii. p. 164. — Gray and Mitch. Gen. of 



Birds, vol. ii. p. 389, Paradoxornis, sp. 1.— Blytti, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. vol. xiv. p. 578. — Bonap. 



Consp. Gen. Av. p. 500, Paradoxornis, sp. 1. — Moore, Cat. Birds in Mus. East Ind. Comp. 

 Bathyrhynchus brevirostris, M'Clell. Quart. Journ. Calcutta Med. and Phys. Soc. 1837. — lb. Ind. Rev. 1838, p. 513, 



with a figure. 



Perhaps there is no one of the smaller Insessorial birds which has excited more interest among ornitholo- 

 gists than the present very singular species, which I had the pleasure of first making known to science in 

 the year 1836; nothing was then known respecting its history, and we are still uninformed as to its habits 

 and economy, or for what purpose its remarkably formed bill is especially adapted. It is a species of great 

 rarity, so much so, indeed, that I know of no continental collection which is graced by a specimen ; our 

 National Museum, however, as well as those of the Honourable East India Company and the Zoological 

 Society, all contain examples. The sexes appear to offer little external difference either in size or colour. 

 Mr. Hodgson has sent specimens to the British Museum from Nepaul, and Mr. M'Clelland to that of the 

 East India Company from Assam ; these countries therefore may be considered to constitute its true 



habitat. 



Crown of the head and back of the neck dull rufous ; upper surface, wings and tail sandy brown ; face 

 and throat white, mottled with black ; ear-coverts jet-black; under surface pale sandy brown, with a large 

 blotch of black on the breast immediately below the mottled feathers of the throat ; bill rich orange- 

 yellow ; tarsi and feet olive-green. 



The figures are of the natural size. 



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