1843.] Mr. Blyth's Report for December Meeting, 1842. 947 



11 ?. P.frivolus ; Turdus frivolus, Latham, Vieillot; Australia: re- 

 ferred to this genus by Mr. G. R. Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1843, p. 192. 

 The Mexican Orpheus longirostris, Swainson, is strangely referred 

 to Pomatorhinus by M. Temminck in his Planches coloriees, vide 

 Fauna American a-borealis, II. 191. Probably one of the subsequently 

 described Australian species will prove identical with P. frivolus ; 

 this genus having been originally constituted upon a single species. 



In Dr. Horsfield's catalogue of the Assamese birds procured by Dr. 

 McClelland, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 166, P. montanus is included, with 

 the remark that " no essential difference is apparent between a speci- 

 men of this bird sent from Assam and the specimens obtained in the 

 Island of Java, from which the original description was made." A 

 drawing, however, in Dr. McClelland's possession, taken from the only 

 specimen of this genus which was procured by him, refers distinctly to 

 P. schisticeps ; a species which undoubtedly is nearly allied to P. 

 montanus, as is also the P. Horsfieldi, but all three present constant 

 differential characters, as follow : — 



In P. montanus, the whole back and scapularies, with the nape, are 

 bright chestnut-rufous ; crown and sides of the head schistaceous ; and 

 a superciliary streak reaching to the occiput, with the entire under- 

 pays to near the vent, vivid white, the latter flanked with rufous. 



In P. schisticeps, the rufous is confined to the immediate border of 

 the white under-parts ; the neck, back, and scapularies, being wholly 

 olivaceous: in other respects like the preceding. The young, too, 

 present no difference of colour, further than that the crown is browner ; 

 their wings and tail being also shorter, and the clothing plumage flimsy, 

 at least in part. 



In P. Horsfieldi, the rufous is constantly wanting altogether, be- 

 sides which the white extends but little beyond the breast, which is 

 flanked with dusky : in other respects it resembles both the others. 



The geographic locations of these three species are different ; and the 

 Himalayan P. schisticeps is the most likely of them to occur in Assam. 



Same page. My genus Xiphirhynchus being identical in name with 

 Mr. Swainson's Ziphorhynchus, I change it to Xiphorhamphus, and 

 supply a figure of the species upon which it is founded. 



P. 177. I also give a representation of Paradoxomis ruficeps ; but 

 regret to add that the artist (for whom I furnished a rough sketch) has 



