44 Notices and Descriptions of various New [No. 169. 



the Dicccum group also on the latter occasion.* Mr. Gould has recently 

 figured a curious little Australian bird by the name Smikrornis flavescens, 

 the form and colouring of which approximate those of Piprisoma agile ; 

 and it seems to lead thence to the hitherto isolated Australian genus 

 Pardalotus. Should this affinity be real, a gradation would be here shewn 

 from the Malayan Prionochilus to the Australian Pardalotus ; and the 

 position of the latter genus be thus affirmed. 



Fam. Meliphagidm. The most decided Indian representative of this 

 Australian group, occurs in the genus Zosterops, treated of in XIV, 562 

 et seg. ; and the sole Indian species is evidently the Sylvia palpebrosa, 

 Temminck, p. c. 292, f. 3, as described in Griffith's ' Animal Kingdom,' 

 VI, 451 ; but whether this, or the name annulosus, (Swainson), should 

 hold precedence, I have not the means of determining. The Z. borbonicus 

 doubtfully referred to this genus in XIV, 564, is, I perceive, on more 

 minute inspection, a decided Zosterops, having the same circle of fea- 

 thers round the eye, only of a dusky hue, instead of the silky- white 

 which renders this circle so conspicuous in its congeners. It is the 

 Z. cinerea, Swainson, ' Menageries/ p. 294. f Perhaps the genus Iora 

 (treated of in XIII, 380, and XIV, 602,) may come within the 

 extreme confines of the Meliphagidce : and though not much allied to 

 Iora (so far as I can perceive), I have less hesitation in bringing the 

 Orioles under the same group. X An Australian species of true Oriole 

 (Gracula viridis of Shaw) has, indeed, been long regarded as a Melt- 



" (ii A'' 1 '* 4 *'' * k orc * Arthur Hay has discovered a new Dicoeum in the neighbourhood of Simla, 



1/ fl ii r/rt*. which he designates D. sanguinifrons. " Forehead, occiput, and chin, a rich blood- 



. ,- / /.JJorange red — more orange than red in dry skins ; lower-parts golden-yellow : upper-parts 



(? <7 j./l'" "/ the same, mingled with olive." Dr. Horsfield's Javanese D. cruentatum, described in 



XIV, note to p. 558, is D. rubrocanum, (Tern.) 



f I named one Mauritius species, Z. curvirostris, in XIV, 563; but I find this 

 name has been anticipated by Mr. Swainson, for the " Dicceum chloronotus of the 

 Paris Museum" (vide ' Birds of W. Africa,' Nat. Libr., Orn., VIII, 44). If, how- 

 ever, the latter had been described by the specific name chloronotus, Mr. Swainson 

 could have no right to change it, at least without assigning a sufficient reason for so 

 doing; and if undescribed before, it does not appear that Mr. Swainson has published 

 any description of it, that should establish his right of nomenclature. 



My Z. nicobaricus, XIV, 563, would seem to be merely the young of Z. palpebro- 

 sus ; though I have never seen an Indian specimen in the same plumage. Examples 

 in the ordinary adult garb of Z. palpebrosus have now been received by the Society 

 from the Nicobars. 



+ This is an opinion to which I have long been leaning; and I pointed out the affi- 

 nity of Plectrorhyncha lanceolata, Gould, to the Orioles, even to the form of its 

 nest, in XII, 180 (bis). 



