884 Asiatic Society. [No. 129. 



Upper-parts slightly olivaceous brown, the tail obscurely barred, and its outer feathers 

 successively more distinctly tipped with dusky and then whitish; under parts dull 

 fulvous-white, except on the throat and middle of the belly, which are pure white ; 

 bill pale brown, darker near the ridge of the upper mandible ; legs, also, in the dry 

 specimen, pale reddish-brown ; the crown a trifle darker than the rest. 



Cisticola cursitans ; Prinia cursitans, Franklin. This small species extends into 

 Nepal, where there is another nearly allied to it. 



* Parisoma ? vireoides, Jerdon: mutilated. 



* Motacilla variegata, Vieillot, not of Latham : do.* 



Muscipeta paradisea: a particularly interesting specimen, as demonstrating — 

 what I have for some time been convinced of, from observation of the living birds, 

 and especially their notes, — that this and the M. Indica v. castanea, Auctorum, 

 are but different states of plumage of the same species, both sexes of which attain 

 the white garb with full maturity, though breeding before they assume this livery. 

 In the present specimen, a male, which is only sent for inspection and exhibition, as it 

 belongs to a friend of Mr. Jerdon, the whole under-parts, some of the upper tail- 

 coverts, and the upper tertiaries of the wings, are pure white, the last displaying the 

 usual black markings, while the rest of the plumage is bright chestnut, except the 

 head and neck, which are glossy green-black as usual ; and it moreover does not appear 

 that this bird was moulting, but that the individual had thrown out this intermediate 

 garb at the last renewal of its feathers, a few of these (among the interscapularies) being 

 partly white and partly of the chestnut hue of reputed M. castanea. One of our taxider- 

 mists assures me, however, that he has shot a male of this species during its moult, in 

 which the chestnut feathers were all being replaced by white ones, and mentions particu- 

 larly that one only of its long chestnut middle tail-feathers had been cast, and that a 

 new white one was growing in its place. I may further add, that Mr. Hodgson has 

 already presented the Museum with white and chestnut specimens, referring both 

 to M. paradisea ; and that I have seen a white male paired with a chestnut female, 

 though more frequently pairs of the same colour associate. This bird is not un- 

 common in the vicinity of Calcutta at all seasons : and I have seen a nest of young 

 ones, which were dull chestnut, with merely a slight indication of the black hood. 



It was necessary to enter into the foregoing details, because in Col. Sykes's Catalogue 

 of the Birds of the Deccan (P. Z. S., 1832, p. 84), it is remarked that — "these two 

 birds have lately been erroneously considered to belong to the same species. They were 

 never found however by Col. Sykes (who shot many,) in the same locality, nor did he 

 observe any intermediate state of plumage. The difference between the females of the 

 two birds noticed above at once decides the distinction of species" ! Both white and 

 chestnut-coloured individuals may commonly enough be observed in the Calcutta 

 Botanic Garden, and frequently about thick bamboos in other districts of this neigh- 

 bourhood. 



Muscicapa melanops : here not rare during the cool months. 



*M. albicaudata, Jerdon. 



*M. super ciliaris, Jerdon; Dimorpha (Hodgson, but wrongly so located by me,) 



* I have lately obtained a fresh, but much injured, specimen of this bird, taken by a shikaree, 

 and am told that it is not very rare in the vicinity of Calcutta during the cool months. 



