1846.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 315 



cent, which in the continental race is pure white ; the upper-parts being 

 also a shade blacker ; and the bill (as previously remarked) seems always 

 to be more strongly falcate at tip than in D. ccerulescens. The average 

 dimensions, too, of the continental race are decidedly greater. 



Pomatorhinus horsfieldii of South India has an analogous representa- 

 tion in P. melanurus, nobis, of Ceylon, which I shall describe with 

 other species of this genus. Though approximating very closely, it is 

 as well characterized as several admitted species of Malacocercus. 



From these and similar instances, it would appear as if several species 

 had a tendency to become more intensely coloured towards the equator ; 

 Gallus bankinus of Malacca is much deeper- coloured than that of India : 

 and the difference of Halcyon capensis of India and of Malacca (pointed 

 out in XIV. 190) is so marked that Mr. Jerdon proposes to call the 

 Indian bird H. brunniceps (Madr, Journ. No. XXXI, 143 ;) but if con- 

 sidered distinct, it would bear the prior name of H. gurial, (Lath.) 

 Pearson, X, 633.* Our little tailor-bird of India (Orthotomus longi- 

 cauda) occurs, but of a considerably darker colour, at Malacca, and to- 

 gether with two other species of its genus, Orth. edela and O. cinera- 

 ceus. I could mention two or three more instances ; but nevertheless, 

 in the great majority of cases, examples of the same species from the 

 most various localities are absolutely similar, f 

 (To be continued ) 



Notes, chiefly Geological, from Seringapatam, by the Hegulla Pass, to 

 Cannanore. By Capt. Newbold. 



The geology of the country around Seringapatam I have already no- 

 ticed. J Having passed its walls, my route lay westward over a strong, 

 kunkerous, uneven, and rather sterile tract to Hussairpore (eighteen 

 miles), on the banks of the Lachmi Thirth stream, a tributary to the 

 Cauvery, where stands a ruined bungalow, built by the Hon. Arthur 

 Cole. 



Hussairpore.— The formation is a micaceous gneiss with veins of 

 quartz, and beds of the same mineral, evidently. interstratified with the 

 layers of gneiss. These beds, on weathering, leave the surface soil 



* The Malacca H. capensis is also smaller than its Indian representative, 

 f On the question of the very close approximation of numerous allied species, vide 

 Agassiz, in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1842, p. 97. 

 % Madras Journal, January 1840, pp. 129—33. 



