1846.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 53 



that he had observed no heaps quite so large as some of those des- 

 cribed by Mr. Gould. The eggs were sent by Mr. Barbe, with merely 

 a notice that they had been " found in the sand." 



I have further to acknowledge a rich collection of New Holland 

 specimens, just received from the Australian Museum at Sydney. In 

 Vol. XIV, p. 546, I made a few remarks on Mr. Gould's magnifi- 

 cent work on the birds of Australia, and therefore I shall further notice 

 here, that Mr. Gould's Carpophaga leucomela is not a Carpophaga, but 

 a Dendrotreron apud Hodgson, ranking with C. Hodgsonii, C. arquatrix, 

 and C. guinea, auctorum, having but twelve tail-feathers, &c. &c. : and that 

 Mr. Gould's distinctions of Eurystomus australis from Eu. orientalis are 

 very erroneous ; as these two species exactly agree in size and structure : 

 but the former is readily distinguished by having the black of the head 

 confined to the lores, and by the brownish hue of the crown and nape, 

 of which no trace occurs in the species of India and the Malay countries ; 

 which latter has the whole head and cheeks blackish, and the nape and 

 back concolorous with the scapularies, in addition to its blue being of a 

 deeper tint. Lastly, the Anous melanops figured by Mr. Gould, is cer- 

 tainly identical with a species in the Society's Museum, from the Bengal 

 Soonderbuns ; and which I can scarcely doubt will prove to be the Ster- 

 na tenuirostris, Tem., from the western shore of the Indian Ocean, or, 

 in, other words, the eastern coast of Africa. 



Chrysococcyx smaragdinus, nobis. In XI, 917, I considered certain 

 little Cuckoos to be specifically identical, which are respectively inhabi- 

 tants of India, the Malay countries, and Australia. A better series of 

 specimens now convinces me that three species are here confounded. 

 That of India has already received a name, being the Trogon maculatus, 

 Gm., founded on the spotted Curucui of Brown's Illustrations, which 

 certainly represents a variety, or incidental state of plumage, of this 

 species ; but the name is so very inapplicable to the species generally, 

 that it cannot justly be adopted. The presumed male and female des- 

 cribed, loc. cit. y as C. lucidus refer to this species : another presumed 

 female, from Arracan, tends to the hepaticus, plumage common to many 

 Cuckoos, having the head chesnut, the back still more cupreous than in 

 the supposed female formerly described, and the lower-parts closely 

 barred throughout with coppery-green upon a white ground, except the 

 lower tail-coverts which are chiefly banded with green and deep rufous: 



