1844.] for December Meeting , 1842. 375 



The Svya criniger, Hodgson, {As. Res, xix, 183,) may next be in- 

 troduced, a form which connects Sphenura and its allies with Prinia, 

 being again much related to Malacocercus chatarrhea : and hereabouts 

 should probably also range the Cossyphus minutus, Dumeril, briefly 

 described in the Diet. Class, to have " the upper-parts brown ; head 

 rayed longitudinally with rufous and brown ; under-parts fulvous-grey, 

 with a white throat: length four inches and a half:" and inhabiting 

 India. 



The various Indian Prinice are perfectly identical as a group with 

 the African Drymoicce of Swainson, numerous species of which are 

 figured by Dr. A. Smith and by Ruppell, and two or three by Levaillant. 

 Ruppell, or rather his editor Dr. Cretzschmar, adopts Prinia (in the 

 ' Neue Wirbelthiere') ; but Dr. Smith employs Drymoica for the whole 

 series, including the Pinc-pinc of Levaillant, upon which Swainson 

 founded his Hemipteryx. Referring to Mr. G. R. Gray's 'List of the 

 Genera of Birds', 2nd edit., I find le Capocier of Levaillant (Sylvia 

 macroura, Lath., v. Malurus capensis, Stephens,) cited as the type of 

 the genus, and the date given so far back as 1827; but this must be 

 a typographical error for 1837, when Drymoica appears to have been 

 first defined by Mr. Swainson in his classification of Birds published 

 in Lardner's Cyclopaedia ; at least, there is no mention of the group in 

 Swainson's remarks on the Sylviadce in the 'Fauna Americana- borealis,' 

 II, 201, (1831,) nor in the notice accompanying his figure of Prinia 

 familiaris, Horsfield, in the " Zool. III.," 2nd series, Vol. Ill, (1832-3.) 

 In the ' Classification of Birds/ the same author suggests that Prinia 

 familiaris, Horsf., is probably an aberrant species of Orthotomus ; and 

 gives, as the types of Drymoica, firstly, Sylvia cysticola, Tem., and 

 secondly, Levaillant's Capocier ; but the former of these, if considered 

 separable, (and if 1837 be the true date of Drymoica,) must rank as 

 Cysticola schcenicola, (Bonap.) Lesson, who elevated it to the rank of 

 a subdivision in 1831 ; and the latter would appear to be a true Prinia, 

 Horsfield, (1820,) whence the name Drymoica becomes inadmissable. 

 To judge from the coloured figures, it would seem that the various 

 African species effect a complete transition from Prinia into Cysticola, 

 which latter is rather an aberrant form of Prinia than a distinct na- 

 tural group, the particular aberration attaining its ultimatum in He- 

 mipteryx, Sw. I shall follow Dr. A. Smith in uniting the entire series, 



3g 



