372 Appendix to Mr. Blytfts Report [No. 149. 



ceps, Sw., C. punctata, Gould, and P. olivaceum, Jerdon, — appears also 

 to claim Megalurus f ruficeps of Sykes as a synonym ; at least his des- 

 cription of the plumage agrees precisely, only he states that the tail is 

 equal and narrow, whence it may be that the outermost pair of rec. 

 trices were wanting in his specimen. The admeasurements which he 

 assigns, also, are improbable for a bird of this group, whence I suspect 

 that there must be some typographical error ; the minute description 

 of the colouring coincides exactly.* The Society has received speci- 

 mens of Pellomium ruficeps from Mr. Hodgson and from Mr. Jerdon. 

 Very different is the 



Megalurus palustris (?), Horsfield, (which is Malurus marginalis, 

 Reinwardt ;) Turdus toklao of Buchanan Hamilton's drawings, 

 J. A. S. XI, 603. This, 1 believe, is a genuine Megalurus. It 

 has a long and much graduated tail, and is remarkable for the 

 considerable difference of size between the male and female. Length 

 of the male about nine inches and a half, of which the tail measures 

 four and three-quarters, its outermost feathers two inches and a 

 quarter less ; wings three inches and three-quarters, and their spread 

 twelve inches; bill to gape an inch, and tarse an inch and a half: 

 female eight inches and a quarter, of which the tail measures four and 

 a quarter ; expanse ten inches and a half, and closed wing three 

 and one-eighth ; bill to gape seven-eighths of an inch, and tarse 

 barely one and a quarter. Colour much as in the British Locustella 

 Raii;] the feathers becoming extremely worn prior to their renewal, 

 and tail much rubbed away. In new plumage the upper parts are 

 bright olive-brown, with a mesial broad black stripe to each feather of 

 the back and scapularies ; margins of the wing-feathers also brown, 

 their inner portion dusky; crown rufescent, with mesial dark lines to 

 the feathers, tending to become obsolete towards the front, these coronal 

 feathers being small, rigid, and appressed ; a pale streak over the eye ; 



* In a valuable communication from Mr. H. E. Strickland, that naturalist remarks, 

 of Col. Sykes's specimen, — "Megalurus ruficeps, Sykes, is not a Megalurus, but 

 seems to me to belong to Gould's Australian genus Hylacola." The latter would 

 seem, however, from the description in P. Z. S. 1842, p. 135, to come very close 

 upon Pellomium, and I should not be surprised to learn of their identity. Gould's 

 illustrated work on the * Birds of Australia/ I have not at present an opportunity of 

 referring to ; but I think I can recollect the figures of his two Hylacolce, and that they 

 do closely approximate the Pellomium. 



f The Locustella is indeed more allied to this and proximate genera than to the birds 

 with which it is usually arranged, 



