1842.] Asiatic Society. 791 



*Muscicapa hirundinacea, Reinwardt, figured in Horsfield's ' Zoological Researches 

 in Java,' and described by the same naturalist as M. obscura in Lin. Trans. XIII, 

 pt. I. 146 ; erroneously identified by Mr. Jerdon with M. picata of Sykes, (not of 

 Swainson,) from which it is readily distinguished by having no white on the wings, 

 nor on the exterior border of its outermost tail-feathers, while the bill is also fully a 

 third longer. Inhabits also Tenasserim. 



*M. latirostris, Raffles, Lin. Trans. XIII, pt. II, 312, and again so termed by 

 Swainson, Nat. Libr., Fly 'catchers, p. 253 : distinct from M. Poonensis of Sykes, 

 with which it was suspected to be identical by Mr. Jerdon. I presume this to be the 

 species here indicated, as it differs only from Mr. Swainson's description by having the 

 4th primary above one-eighth of an inch shorter than the 2nd, whereas the latter is 

 stated by that author to be only as long as the 6th ; whence it may be that the feather 

 in question was not fully grown in his specimen. The species there also described 

 by the same author as M. leucura (so also named in Latham's ' General History,' 

 though described as new by Mr. Swainson,) is extremely common in Bengal dur- 

 ing the cool season; but the same specific name was bestowed by Gmelin upon 

 another species, which should retain it, the more especially as the present one, 

 i. e. the male of it, becomes, with full maturity, the Saxicola rubeculoides of Sykes, 

 P. Z. S. 1832, 92, as first suggested to me by Mr. Jerdon.* Lastly, I may remark 

 that the M. picata, Swainson, of Western Africa, described by him in the same 

 place, yields precedence to the Indian M. picata of Sykes, and must therefore 

 receive another appellation. I add a description of the skin before me of M. latirostris. 

 Length four inches and seven-eighths, of wing two inches and three-quarters, and tail an 

 inch and three-quarters ; bill to forehead (through the feathers) half an inch, and three- 

 quarters of an inch to gape ; tarse half an inch, and slender. The hue of the upper- 

 parts is darker than in M. grisola, being also slightly deeper on the crown ; wing-coverts 

 and tertiaries margined with dull fulvous : throat, gorget, belly and under tail-coverts, 

 white, with a slight fulvous tinge on the former; the breast and flanks dull ashy 



of an inch and upwards, and tarse somewhat exceeding half an inch. Crown and nape, of the 

 (presumed) male, black with a bright steel gloss; the sides of the head, neck, and breast dark 

 ashy passing into slightly glossed blackish on the throat, and into white on the belly and 

 under tail-coverts: the rest of the upper-parts dark rufo-ferruginous, with a purplish gloss on 

 the back, scapularies, and smaller wing-coverts ; the rest of the wing dusky, more or less edged 

 with ferruginous, and broadly so on each side of the tertiaries : bill light horn-colour ; and feet 

 apparently plumbeous. The (presumed) female has the colours generally weaker, the glossed 

 tips of the coronal and nape feathers less developed, and no rich purplish gloss upon the back, 

 which is of a dingy and much lighter ferruginous : the under-parts scarcely differ from those 

 of the preceding. 



M. plumosa, Nobis. Length (of a supposed female) about six inches and three-quarters, of 

 wing three inches and a quarter, and tail two inches and five-eighths ; bill to forehead (through 

 the feathers) nearly seven-eighths of an inch, and tarse five-eighths of an inch. Body plumage 

 very much longer and looser in texture than in the preceding, especially the feathers of the 

 rump, which are of remarkable length and puffy. Upper-parts light olive-brown, tinged with 

 greenish-ash on the crown and ear-coverts; throat and breast pale rufescent, still lighter and 

 passing into white on the belly; wings and tail bright rufo-ferruginous, except the smallest 

 coverts of the former which are hidden by the scapularies, and the primaries and their coverts 

 which are edged with the same colour as the back. Bill pale horn-colour ; and feet appear to 

 have been greenish. 



* This bird falls under the division Dimorpha (olim Siphya), Hodgson, Ind. Rev. I. (1839), 

 p. 651. 



