1842.] Asiatic Society. 803 



an inch in vertical depth ; tarse an inch, and middle toe and claw seven-eighths of an 

 inch. Upper-parts rufous, with transverse black lines on each feather of the back, 

 scapularies, and rump, these having also yellowish-white lateral margins, internally 

 edged with black; sides of the lower part of the neck and breast, together with 

 the more conspicuous feathers of the wings, fulvous-white, with tolerably broad 

 black cross-bars ; below the breast light and bright ferruginous ; throat and middle 

 of the fore-neck, to the commencement of the breast, deep black; and crown rufous, 

 with a series of black and white feathers, appearing as white spots set off with black, 

 along the mesial line, another and broader series over each eye, a third bordering 

 the black throat, and the sides of the upper-part of the neck covered with the same, 

 appearing as whitish with black edgings to the feathers ; quills brownish-dusky, 

 with pale edges. The description of the female by M. Drapiez has already been 

 cited, whilst M. Temminck and Col. Sykes assert that it does not differ from the male. 

 The example here described is from Madras, and the species is understood to inhabit 

 the Indian peninsula where it is tolerably common, Java, and (very doubtfully) 

 Madagascar. 



2. T. taigoor, Sykes : *■ Bengal Sporting Magazine,' Oct. 1836, pi. I, fig. 6 ; H. plum- 

 bipes, Hodgson, Ibid. May, 1837, p. 346; ' Bombay Literary Transactions,' II, 271. 

 The species which I conclude to be this, presents scarcely any difference in plumage 

 from the preceding: the upper-^arts are merely browner and less rufous, especially 

 the head and nape, and the black cross-bars of the dorsal feathers are commonly 

 broader and incline to be confluent, the markings generally being somewhat less 

 clearly defined; but the size is inferior, and the beak proportionally more slender. 

 Length five inches and three-quarters ; of wing three inches and one-eighth, or less ; 

 bill to forehead (through the feathers) nine-sixteenths of an inch, and under 

 three-sixteenths in vertical depth; tarse not seven-eighths of an inch, and mid- 

 dle toe and claw three-quarters of an inch. The male specimen before noticed 

 as wanting the black gular streak has also the light ferruginous colour below the 

 throat paler and less developed, the throat being spotless whitish, flanked with dusky 

 specks. This appears to be the species figured in the ' Bombay Literary Transac- 

 tions,' as above cited, which is stated to be common in Guzerat and in Malwa. 

 " Extent of wings nine inches and a half." In the peninsula, Mr. Jerdon has 

 " only procured it solitary, in long grass in the more open spaces of the Western 

 coast." It is not uncommon in the vicinity of Calcutta, where I have found it breed- 

 ing, in the Botanic Garden. As occasional females of this and of the next so much 

 resemble, and Mr. Eyton, while enumerating T. taigoor in his list of species from 

 the Malay peninsula, describes only the male of his T. atrogularis, it is certainly 

 not improbable that he mistook the female of that bird for the present species. 



3. T. atrogularis; H. atrogularis, Eyton, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 107. Intermediate in 

 size to the two preceding species, with as stout a bill as the first ("in old males^, and 

 seldom much trace of rufous on the upper-parts, the predominant hue of which 

 is a sort of dusky-chocolate, having much black intermixed, the transverse lines 

 mostly confluent and suffusing a considerable portion of the feather; the black bars 

 on the sides of the breast and wings, also, are broad, so as to assume an oval or even 

 round form, and the fulvescent tinge on the belly is not very deep, and mostly 

 extends up the breast ; the black of the breast and fore-neck of the male is, as 



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