PHCENICURA TETHYS— P. ATRATA. 



and secondaries of a deeper shade, margined with pale yellowish-brown ; 

 the under tail-coverts pale orange ; the tail the same as in the male. 



The food of this species consists of worms, insects and their larvae, to 

 which during the season are added the smaller fruits and berries. It 

 builds in the clefts and holes of rocks, old walls, and similar situations, and 

 its eggs are represented to be of a pure and shining white. 



Fig. 1. represents the male of P. Tethys, from a specimen lately pre- 

 sented to us by T. F. L. Baker, Esq. Fig. 2. The female. 



PH(ENICURA ATRATA, nobis. 

 Black Indian Redstart. 



PLATE LXXXVI. Fig. 3. 



P. capite, gula, pectore dorsoque cinereo-nigris, ventro infra uropygioque rufis, 

 remigibus tectricibusque alarum majoribus, fuscis rufo marginatis, cauda rufa 

 rectricibus duabus intermediis medio fuscis, rufo marginatis. Pedibus fuscis. 



Sylvia atrata? Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 514. 21. 

 Black Red-tail? Lath. Syn. 4. p. 426. 16. 



The specimen from which our figure is taken, was received with a large 

 collection of birds from India, and although we have not been able to 

 identify it to our satisfaction with any of the Redstarts described by 

 other ornithologists, it still approaches so closely to the Sylvia atrata of 

 Latham, that we have ventured to quote his synonym as indicative of our 

 bird. Like the other species of this well marked group, its colours consist 

 principally of orange, black, and grey. Its size is nearly that of the Tethys, 

 and its manners are described by our correspondent as similar to those of 

 the Common Redstart (P. ruticilla). The head, throat, neck, breast 

 and back, are ink-black, the feathers slightly margined with grey ; the 

 greater wing-coverts, quills and secondaries, deep hair-brown, margined 

 with reddish- white ; the lower part of the breast, belly, under wing-coverts, 

 flanks and vent orange ; the rump and tail are orange, the two middle 

 feathers, with one-half of the interior web, and a small portion of the ex- 

 terior, near the tip, brown : the bill and legs blackish-brown. 



