2S4 Notices and Descriptions of various New [No. 172. 



the rectrices of this bird, which are pure white in the adult, are, in the 

 young of the same, green-glossed black as the wing-primaries : — at 

 least I presume the species to be the same, the Society's black- tailed 

 young one being from the Nicobars, and one of the adults from the 

 Cocos Isles (a group of rocks lying northward of the Andamans,) the 

 other from the Malayan Peninsula. 



Zanclostomus viridirostris, Jerdon, would seem to be a common 

 species in Ceylon ; thus confirming my suspicion (XI, 1096,) of its 

 being Daniell's Handee Kootah, as well as the supposed Indian race 

 (mentioned by Levaillant) of Serisomus cristatus of Madagascar. 



Captain Tickell has favoured me with the following description of a 

 new Spiny- tailed Swift : — 



" Acanthylis sylvatica, Tickell. Entire length, from tip of bill to 

 end of tail, four inches and a fifth ; wing from shoulder to tip four 

 inches and a half, and reaching an inch and a half beyond the tail. 

 Form typical : the details being as in Ac. nudipes, (Hodgson). Wiry- 

 tips to the shafts of the rectrices well developed — sharp and stiff. 

 Thumb versatile but opposive (as in Ac. nudipes, of which I killed a 

 fine specimen at Darjeeling*). Colour — Bill, iris, and legs, black. Rictus, 

 auriculars, chin, throat, and breast, iron-grey, with a dash of ashy-brown. 

 Belly pure white, the feathers black-shafted. All the upper-parts 

 black, with dull blue metallic reflections. Remiges brownish-black : tail 

 and its shafts black. Across the lower back passes a broad defined 

 space of white, including in fact the whole rump, but not the upper tail- 

 coverts which are of the same colour as the upper-parts generally. 



" I shot a specimen of this bird so far back as Nov. 1835. It haunts 

 open cultivated ground in the midst of forest ; also the cleared patches 

 on the sides and summits of the hills [in Central India] . Is common, 

 but local ; gregarious and noisy : being often seen in company with 

 Cypselus melba. When my duties call me next into the wooded regions 

 of my jurisdiction, I will do my best to shoot some specimens and send 

 you the dried skins, as vouchers for the above description. , ' 



Psilorhinus, p. 27, ante. Lord Arthur Hay mentions, in epistold, 

 — " It is very curious that though the Red-billed Jay is found alone at 

 Simla, I should have procured only the Yellow-billed one after leaving 



* Mr. Bartlett informs me that he had lately seen a specimen of this Himalayan 

 bird shot in England, at or near Colchester, in Essex.— E. B. 



