1844.] for December Meeting, 1842. 381 



black, with but a slight admixture of yellow, and appears as if it had 

 been assuming the colouring of /. zeylonica by a change of hue in 

 the feathers ; but there is reason to suppose that this may have been a 

 hybrid between the present and the preceding species. Mr. Jerdon, to 

 whom I suggested their identity, upon the authority of the specimen in 

 question, remarks, that " I think your first opinion of their distinctness 

 will still hold good, at least the males have always some black here 

 [in the South of India], though at one time I thought not," by which 

 I presume he means some black upon the head. Certainly, I have 

 tried much, in vain, to obtain a second specimen thus characterized. 

 The females have the tail of the same colour as the back, more or less 

 infuscated, and the dark portion of the wings merely dusky. I do not 

 perceive that they can be distinguished with certainty from the females 

 of the preceding species, though the darkened tail is a tolerable crite- 

 rion, so far as I have observed. 



3. /. scapularis, Horsfield. Inhabits the Malay countries. Colour 

 considerably greener than in the others (as represented in Dr. Hors- 

 field's figure), especially upon the head ; and the white on the wings 

 less developed. I have only seen females. 



Another genus which appears to me to belong to the great Timalia 

 group, is the Cutia of Mr. Hodgson, J. A. S., V, 77 1> as was first sug- 

 gested to me by Mr. Frith : and there is a difficult series of species 

 with more Thrush-like or Warbler-like bills, but which are likewise 

 referrible to the same subfamily, exemplified by the genera Brachyp- 

 teryx, Horsfield, Macronous, Jardine and Selby, and Malacopteron, 

 Eyton, all of which much require elucidation. 



The genus Brae hypteryx {Lin. Trans. XIII, 157,) Wft s founded on 

 two Javanese species, to the first of which it has since been restricted ; 

 and though several others have been referred to it by different authors, 

 (as Br. nigrocapitata, Eyton, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 103, — Br. atriceps, 

 Jerdon, and Br. bicolor, Lesson, Rev. ZooL &c. 1839, p. 138,) it 

 would appear that all of these, with the Br. sepiaria of Dr. Horsfield, 

 exhibit more of the characters of Malacopteron, Eyton, (P. Z. S. 1839, 

 p. 102), with which Mr. Strickland identifies my Trichastoma (J. A, 

 S., XI, 795). To the same group must likewise be assigned the Timalia 

 poiocephala of Jerdon's Supplement. In the first edition of Mr. G. 

 R. Gray's 'List of the Genera of Birds,' the name Brachypteryx is 



