1844.] for December Meeting, 1842. 373 



and the under-parts are dull whitish, tinged with brown, the breast 

 usually more or less speckled with small linear dark spots; tail brown 

 without markings: bill horn-coloured, the lower mandible chiefly pale, 

 and inside of the mouth light yellowish, with merely a black spot at 

 each posterior angle of the tongue, — but during the breeding season 

 the interior of the mouth is wholly black, and the bill is then of a livid 

 colour, suffused above with blackish : legs dull purplish-brown. In 

 worn plumage, the black portions of the feathers have faded to dusky- 

 brown, and their brown lateral margins have more or less disappeared, 

 what remains of them having faded in hue. The young nearly resem- 

 ble the newly moulted adults in colouring, but have a strong tinge 

 of yellow on the eye-streak and under-parts, and the lower mandible 

 is chiefly bright yellow; their crown also is devoid of any rufous tinge. 

 The different size of the sexes is very conspicuous when they leave 

 the nest (which is during May). In many respects, this bird resem- 

 bles the Sphenura, but the beak is considerably more slender and 

 elongated, the rictorial bristles are inconsiderable, and the tarse is 

 larger and stronger, with proportionate toes and claws. Both genera 

 have remarkable freedom of action of the legs, enabling them to sprawl 

 widely as they clamber among the reeds and grass-stems, and the 

 black interior of the mouth during the breeding season is common 

 to both, the entire beak also becoming black in the Sphenura.* 



Of the latter genus, I now suspect, from analogy with the Meg ala- 

 rm, that the two supposed species noticed in XI, 602-3, are merely 

 male and female of the same, notwithstanding the considerable dis- 

 crepancy of size. In all other respects they agree precisely; and of four 

 specimens of the large size which I have now obtained, all proved to 

 be males, while the only example of the small size which I have yet 

 succeeded in procuring, was a female. Mr. Jerdon has lately procured 

 two or three of the small size in the vicinity of Nellore, and it remains 

 to ascertain whether all of these were females. The large measure 

 eight inches and three-quarters long, by eleven across ; wing three 

 and a quarter; middle tail-feathers three and three-quarters; bill to 

 gape seven-eighths of an inch, to forehead under five-eighths; tarse 



* Mr. Frilh informs me, that the Megalurus ascends sinking, with a fine flute-like 

 voice, to some height above the reeds which it frequents, and then suddenly drops down 

 among them. 



