176 Notes on various Indian and Malayan Birds. [No. 122. 



14. X. super ciliaris, Nobis : size of a Shahmour fCopsychus macrourusj , 

 and slightly rufous brown, with dull ferruginous under-parts, a dark 

 ash-coloured head, and narrow white streak over the eyes. Length of a 

 male 8f inches, and of a female 8f inches ; of wing, from bend 2-J and 

 2f inches, and tail 3f and 3| inches : bill to forehead 2 inches over the 

 curve, and 1 £ inch in a straight line, the upper mandible a little exceed- 

 ing the lower one in length : tarse 1 inch, middle toe and claw l^inch, 

 and hind toe and claw 1 inch, the latter nearly If inch. Colour of the 

 upper-parts uniform brown, the quills and tail dusky ; of the under-parts 

 dull or but moderately bright rufo-ferruginous ; crown, occiput, and 

 sides of the head, dark cinereous, having a narrow superciliary white 

 line continued backward to the occiput : throat whitish, streaked with 

 dusky grey; and breast fainter rufous than the belly, and obscurely 

 spotted with dusky: shoulders of the wings and tibial feathers dark 

 cinereous : bill dusky-black, with whitish tips to the mandibles ; and 

 legs apparently leaden-brown, perhaps tinged with greenish. The 

 female only differs in having the rufous colouring of the under-parts 

 not so bright. Inhabits Darjeeling, and is reported to be a pleasing 

 songster. 



The two last genera pertain to a vast natural group, mostly charac- 

 terized by soft puffy plumage and its usual concomitants-^— rounded 

 wings and a graduated tail, strong feet and claws (remedying the defi- 

 ciency of the volar powers), in general a particular style of marking, 

 and the bill assuming almost every modification of form, whence, from 

 the undue consideration with which this organ has been customarily re- 

 garded, the various genera have been scattered about in systems accord- 

 ing to the resemblances borne by it to the exclusion of everything else. 

 These birds hop with the belly near the ground, taking moderately long 

 springs, their action resembling that of a true Tree-creeper (CerthiaJ 

 upon a horizontal surface : the greater number are gregarious in parties 

 of eight or ten, chiefly but not wholly insectivorous, seeking their food 

 much among fallen leaves as well as upon trees, and in general they 

 have loud, harsh, and clamorous voices ; their flight is short and feeble, 

 and they sail with motionless expanded wings as far as they can before 

 alighting. Many have the bill laterally very much compressed, as 

 exemplified by the two genera last noticed, (but especially Xiphirynchus,) 

 in which it is more or less prolonged and curved downward ; the same 



