1842.] Asiatic Society. 795 



with its congeners. It is comprised among the specimens presented to the Museum by 

 Mr. Hodgson.* 



* Macronous ptilosus, Jardine and Selby, III. Orn. pi. CL. : Timalia trichorrhos, 

 Temminck, PI. Col. 594, fig. 1, apud G. R. Gray. Length six inches and up- 

 wards, of wing two inches and five-eighths, and tail two inches and a half, the latter 

 broad and much graduated, its outermost feathers being an inch shorter than the 

 middle ones: bill to forehead above five-eighths of an inch, and to gape nearly seven- 

 eighths of an inch ; tarse seven-eighths of an inch. The extraordinary character of this 

 species consists in the curious form of the feathers of its flanks and rump, which on the 

 latter, in fine specimens, are two inches and a half in length, being very numerous and 

 dense, and consisting of long and flexible flattened stems, conspicuously white, 

 and scantily fringed with fine discomposed and lengthened hair-like barbs, of a dark 

 colour. The crown is bright rufo-ferruginous ; throat black ; back and breast deep 

 tawny olive-brown, darker on the wings, and more dusky towards the flanks ; and 

 the tail is uniform dusky-black : bill black, and legs dusky probably tinged with 

 lead-colour. This bird is barely separable from Timalia, but has the bill less laterally 

 compressed. 



Trichastoma, Nobis; n. g. Also nearly allied to Timalia, but having a moderately 

 stout Warbler's bill, and very long slender setae at the gape, affording a ready distin- 

 guishing character. 



* Tr. rostratum, Nobis. Length above six inches, of wing two inches and three- 

 quarters, and tail two inches, its outermost feathers three-eighths of an inch shorter than 

 the middle ones; bill to forehead (through the feathers) above three-quarters of 

 an inch, and fifteen-sixteenths of an inch to gape ; tarse fifteen-sixteenths of an inch ; 

 middle toe and claw seven-eighths of an inch, and hind toe and claw nearly three- 

 quarters of an inch. Colour of the upper parts uniform olive-brown, somewhat darker on 

 the crown, and having a slight ruddy tinge on the rump and tail; whole under-parts 

 pure white, a little sullied on the breast and lower tail-coverts ; lores and sides of the 

 head pale fulvescent-brown, and sides of the neck to the breast ashy : upper mandible 

 horny-black, the lower yellowish- white except at its extreme tip ; and legs deeply tinged 

 with yellowish-brown. 



* Tr. affine, Nobis. So like the other in plumage as to cause some doubt, on a first 

 view, whether it be specifically distinct; but the much smaller size, and different 



* The same indefatigable naturalist has described T. Nipalensis and T. pellotis, H., As. Res. XIX, 

 1 82 ; neither of which I have seen. There is also a Javanese T. thoracica, v. Pitta thoracica, 

 Temminck, PL Col. t. 76, which is referred to the present genus in Griffith's 'Animal Kingdom," 

 VI, 402, being described as "olivaceous brown above; underneath testaceous-grey; narrow white 

 band from base of bill passes over the eye." Several species from the Indian peninsula have 

 also been described by Messrs. Franklin, Sykes, and Jerdon; but the greater number of these con- 

 stitute the distinct group Malacocercus, Swainson. The following must, however, be excepted. — 2\ 

 hyperythra, Franklin, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 118, described as follows : — "T. supra olivascenti-brunnea ; 

 capite in fronte corporeque toto subtics rvfis ; caudd superne fuseo obsolete fasciatd ; rostro pallido. 

 Longitudo 5." The specimen sent to the Society by Mr. Jerdon for this species is rather 

 larger, and has the throat and upper -part of the fore-neck conspicuously white ; the frontal 

 plumes merely rufescent-brown, and very rigid, as are in a less degree those of the crown, which 

 it is evident are usually raised, while those of the forehead would at all times stand up forming 

 a sort of crest, somewhat as in Pastor cristatellus. Though referrible in preference to Timalia, this 

 species is little else than a miniature of the Malacocerci.—T. hypofeuca, Franklin, loc. cit. 



