1844.] for December Meeting, 1842. 367 



" Genus Saroglossa, H. Bill Chloropsian, but stouter. Tongue 

 cartilaginous, flat, furnished with a full brush forwards. Wings con- 

 siderably acuminated and firm, 1st quill bastard, 3rd longest, 2nd and 

 4th equal, and rather less than the third. Tail firm, stoutish, sub- 

 furcate. Legs and feet strong, arboreal, and subrepatory. Tarsus 

 (to sole) exceeding the mid-toe and claw : heavily scaled to the front ; 

 smooth to sides, and cultrated behind. Toes medial, unequal ; the 

 hind one large and depressed. Nails acute, well curved, suited for 

 creeping or clinging. 



u Type, Lamprotornis spilopterus, Vigors. 



" Habits monticolous and arboreal, feeding like Chloropsis, to 

 which genus and to Hypsipefes, Brachypus, &c, it has most affinity, 

 both of structure and manners, seeming to represent the Sturnine birds 

 in its own group." I still prefer to retain it among the Stumidcc. 



Another group requiring elucidation, and which has strangely been 

 referred by several authors to that of the Mynahs, is the genus of 

 Doomrees (Malacocercus, Swainson), and its various allies. This 

 genus was founded on a Ceylon species, identified by Mr. Swainson 

 with the Qracitla striata of the Paris Museum (or Cossyphus striates, 

 Dumeril), and figured by him in his ' Zoological Illustrations' as — 



1. Malacocercus striatus. It closely resembles one from Southern 

 India, and another from Bengal, Nepal, and Assam; but is distin- 

 guished from the first by the absence of the pale longitudinal markings 

 of the feathers of the back and breast, and from the second by the obvi- 

 ous striation of its tertiaries and tail. A Cingalese specimen presented to 

 the Society by Willis Earle, Esq., corresponds exactly with Swainson's 

 figure ; the cross-striae being much more conspicuous than in its Bengal 

 representative, and consisting of rays of a deeper colour seen at all an- 

 gles of reflection : the under-parts also are more deeply tinged with 

 rufous. Length about nine inches and a half, of wing ten inches, and 

 middle tail-feathers four and a quarter, the outermost an inch and one- 

 eighth less : tarse an inch and one-eighth : the bill to gape an inch only. 



2. M. terricolor, Hodgson ; mentioned as Pastor terricolor, 11., in 

 J. A. S., V, 771? and also classed by Dr. Pearson among the Mynahs 

 in X, 650. Resembles the preceding species, excepting that all its 

 colours are less brought out, the cross-rays on the tail being faint 

 and inconspicuous, and barely discernible on the tertiaries; a very 



3f 



