1839.] Two new species of Meruline Birds. 3J 



Art. V Description of two new Species of a new form of Meru- 

 line Birds. By B. H. Hodgson, Esq. Catamandu. 



Merulidce philedones, Cuvier. — Merulidce crater opodince f Swain- 

 son. — Tenuirostres meliphagidce, Vigors. 



Genus — new, Sibia nobis. Sibya of the Nipalese. Habitat. Lower 

 and central regions of the hills. 



What shall we say to a Meruline form compounded of the bill and 

 tongue of Chloropsis, the nares of Cinnyris, and the wings, tail, and 

 feet of Cinclosoma ? for such is the general, though not the precisely 

 accurate, indication of the form I am about to describe. 



Cuvier has separated from the promiscuous heap of the Meruline 

 Birds a group which he tells us is distinguished from the Merles by 

 a slenderer, sharper, and more arched bill, and by a brushed tongue. 

 To this Cuvierian group my birds unquestionably belong; but the 

 group itself is so large, and its contents have been so little accurately 

 ascertained, that small way is made to a definite conclusion by the 

 determination of that point. There are a vast number of the aberrant 

 Thrushes, both short legged and long, which closely approximate by 

 the bill and tongue towards the Tenuirostres ; but I am nevertheless 

 of opinion that these relations are of secondary, not primary, importance. 

 The birds in question are Thrushes, as Cuvier considered them to 

 be; but whether or not they can be, most of them, ranged with 

 propriety among the Brachypodinai and Crateropodince of Swainson, 

 I know too little of his general system to enable me to judge. 



It may serve to illustrate the character of our birds to say, that they 

 appear to me to belong to the latter sub-family, serving in many res- 

 pects to link together the two. Mr. Swainson considers the long- 

 legged Thrushes to be equivalent to the Tenuirostral Promeropidce. It 

 is certainly remarkable that in one of our species we have the long; 

 broad, and gradated tail of Promerops. 



Genus — Sibia nobis. 



Generic character — Bill and tongue as in Chloropsis ; but the bill 

 more depressed and more keeled towards the base; and the tongue 

 forked as well as brushed. Nares basal, lateral, elongated, pervious, 

 lunated, and almost lineated by a large, soft, sub-arched and nude 

 membrane. 



Nareal bristles, none ; rictal, small ; frontal plumes smooth ; wings, 

 medial, round, acuminate, firm ; fifth and sixth quills longest ; first 

 and second considerably, third and four trivially, gradated ; primaries 

 plus tertiaries nearly one inch; tarsi elevate, stout, nearly smooth; toes 

 submedial, simple, stout ; fores compressed, hind depressed and large ; 



