1842.] Asiatic Society. 603 



but otherwise resembles that of the Salicarice, and between the rictus and eye are 

 five remarkably strong bristles, forming an almost vertical range, with a small bare 

 space in front of them, and they are curved stiffly outwards, as if the object were to 

 defend the eyes ; there are likewise small seta? at the base of the lower mandible : the 

 wings and tail have also the true character stated of Dasyornis> as well as (it would 

 appear) the feet. General colour olive-brown, with mesial blackish streaks to the 

 feathers ; the throat and belly white, and breast and flanks light brown, the breast 

 having a few traces of darker specks : tail graduated, each feather tipped with ful- 

 vous-white, and the rest dusky along the centres, and brownish barred with dusky 

 externally. Irides dark greyish olive. Bill dark olive-brown above, beneath paler ; 

 and legs light purplish-brown. The specimen described was a female.* 



The other species is considerably superior in size, with proportionally much larger 

 and stouter legs, a straight and slender bill, and long, somewhat sharp-pointed tail, the 

 feathers of which are exceedingly graduated ; rictorial bristles small and inconspicu- 

 ous. Its genus would seem to be Megalurus, and the specimen has unfortunately its 

 wings and tail so much mutilated by the bazaar people, that I shall not offer a 

 further description. A curious feature consisted in the inside of the mouth being 

 wholly blackish, while the bill was of a livid colour suffused above with blackish, 

 which is probably a seasonal distinction. 



Cryptonyx coronatus : recent female, from Singapore, presented by myself. 



The magnificent specimen of .the Himalayan Laramergeyer (Gypuetos), exhibited 

 at the last Meeting of the Society, has been mounted, together with some other skins, 

 and more are now in progress of being set up. 



Recurring to the class of Mammalia, I noticed, in a previous Report (ante, pp. 95-8 

 et seq.J, the existence of three species of Otter in the Hooghly, in addition to a Dar- 

 jeeling species there also described ; and I may now announce the existence of a fourth 

 species in the Hooghly, or at least which I infer to have been thence obtained, since our 

 Museum contains two specimens of the skull, marked " common Otter," and which 

 from their size I had hitherto referred to Lutra leptonyx. Upon recently, however, 

 having had the skulls of L. leptonyx and L. nair taken out from the skins and 

 cleaned, it became at once apparent that the species previously referred to the 

 former was quite distinct, the skulls differing in being very much more compress- 

 ed between the orbits, in the still inferior size although the age is greater, in the 

 further development of the post-orbital processes in both specimens, and a variety of 



* I have since obtained another species of the same minimum group, but so wretchedly mutilated 

 by the bazar shikaree who caught it, and also smeared with bird-lime, that I can hardly venture 

 upon a description. Not content with plucking out the large feathers of one wing and of the tail, 

 the cruel brute had broken its lower mandible to prevent its biting, as is the custom of these people 

 with Cormorants, Herons, and such other birds whose peck is worthy of some precaution to avoid : 

 otherwise I think I might hare kept it for a while alive. It is considerably larger than D. locuslel- 

 loides, (striaius,) with legs proportionably larger, and the beak much less compressed laterally. 

 Plumage very like that of the other, but a well developed whitish streak over the eye, the brown 

 a shade less fulvous, and the blackish mesial streak to each coronal feather less defined and con- 

 trasting. Irides dusky olive : bill and inside of the mouth wholly blackish : and legs dull purplish- 

 brown. Length, to base of tail, four inches and five-eighths, of wing three inches and a half, and 

 tarse one inch and a quarter ; bill to forehead (through the feathers) nine-sixteenths of an inch, 

 and to gape, (which is armed with five strong outward-curved setce, as in the other,) one inch and 

 three-fourths. I shall provisionally designate this species D. colluriceps.—E. B. 



