1842.] Asiatic Society. 459 



Iora typ/iia; I. scapularis, Horsfield ; Motacilla subviridis, Tickell, J. A. S. 

 11.577. 



* Parus xanthogenys, Vigors, P. Z. S., 1831, 92, and figured in Gould's 'Century,' 

 pi. XXIX, fig. 1. 



*P. Nipalensis? Hodgson, Ind. Rev. 11. 31 (P. ccesius, Tickell J : two males. 

 This bird agrees minutely with Mr. Hodgson's full description, excepting in being a 

 trifle smaller. Length about five inches, of wing two inches and a half, and tail two 

 inches and a quarter ; bill to forehead (through the feathers) seven-sixteenths of an 

 inch, and to gape half an inch; tarse five-eighths of an inch. 



* Dendrophila frontalis, S wainson. 



*Sitta castaneoventris, Franklin, P. Z. S., 1831, 121, and figured in Jardine 

 and Selby's ' Illustrations of Ornithology,' pi. CXLV, the beak being represented much 

 too short : male and female ; the latter having the under-parts very much paler rufous 

 than in the male. Although I entertain no doubt that this is the species indicated by 

 Major Franklin, still our Museum contains a specimen of another species to which the 

 Latin definition furnished by that gentleman equally applies. This latter is altogether 

 a stouter bird, with the bill especially much broader, and not — as in the other — distinctly 

 and conspicuously compressed for the basal two-thirds : length of wing three inches 

 and one-eighth, and of tail an inch and three-quarters; whereas in the male and female 

 castaneoventris, these measurements are respectively three inches and two inches 

 seven-eighths, and an inch and a half . The generic markings and coloration are so 

 similar, that really I do not see how the dry specimens can be further characterized apart; 

 yet a glance suffices to shew their non-identity as species, and the one now indicated is 

 considerably more allied to the British Nuthatch than is the other, which last displays 

 a close affinity with Dendrophila, not observable in that with which I am comparing 

 it. With respect to colour, the hues of castaneoventris are altogether softer and more 

 delicate, and in both sexes the grey of the upper part of the head and neck is conspi- 

 cuously paler than that of the back ; whereas in the other, although the head and nape 

 are seen, on particular inspection, to be somewhat lighter than the back, this would 

 scarcely be noticed, unless attention were expressly directed to the observation. In 

 castaneoventris, the upper tertiaries are uniformly bluish-grey, and in the rest there is 

 no strongly marked distinction between the dusky of the inner web, and the grey 

 external margin ; but in the other species, the external blue- grey contrasts abruptly 

 with the black of the internal portion of the feather, which last, too, extends over a 

 considerable part of the outer web, as is not the case in castaneoventris : this dis- 

 tinction may perhaps vary somewhat in amount of development in different speci- 

 mens, but I suspect will always be found to prevail more or less decidedly. In 

 the male S. castaneoventris, the colour of the whole under-parts, from the white 

 throat to the mottled under tail-coverts, is of a deep dark ferruginous ; while in the 

 female it is not very much darker than in a British Nuthatch, having the fore-neck 

 and breast a sort of dull isabelline hue tinged with ferruginous, and the belly and 

 flanks darker and more deeply tinged with the latter. In the new species (sex un- 

 known), the fore-neck, breast, and lower parts are uniformly coloured, and much 

 paler than in the male castaneoventris, but deeper than in the female, being of a 

 dull rusty cinnamon tint, with the throat and beneath the eye white, as in the 

 others. I shall venture to designate this bird S. cinnamoventris. 



?> P 



