1845.] or little known Species of Birds. 551 



which is also quite free from any orange tinge, and the whitish mark- 

 ings on the wings are much more developed ; — distinctions which hold 

 true in both sexes. As I have elsewhere described the species, the 

 present indication of it will here suffice. 



I am also informed that the P. badius apud Jerdon, of S. India, dif- 

 fers alike from the true P. ( Micropternus) badius of the Malay coun- 

 tries, and from P. (M.J phceoceps, nobis, of Bengal, Nepal, Assam, 

 and Arracan. Accordingly, we now distinguish three species respec- 

 tively of the subgenera Micropternus, Brachyptemus, and Tiga ; which 

 certainly confirms the propriety of these groups being thus separated.* 



Centropus (p. 202). Lord Arthur Hay has obtained a very splen- 

 did bird of this genus from Malacca, which is evidently the Cuculus 

 bubutus of Raffles's list, stated to be " not much less than two feet in 

 length ;" but it is not Dr. Horsfield's Javanese bird, described to be 

 eighteen inches and a half long {Lin. Trans. XIII, 180), which is 

 precisely the length of the Indian species (vide J. A. S. XI, 1099). 

 This fine species may be appropriately termed 



C. eurycercus, A. Hay : being particularly remarkable for the great 

 breadth of its tail-feathers, each of which measures two inches and 

 three-quarters across. Length about twenty-three inches, of which the 

 middle tail-feathers measure half, the outermost being four inches and 

 three-quarters shorter; wing eight and three-quarters; bill to gape nearly 

 two inches (in a straight line), and three-quarters of an inch in vertical 

 height, being much larger than in C. philippensis ; tarse two and a 

 quarter ; the long hind-claw but an inch. Colour as C. philippensis, but 

 the back and wings are of a brighter and more chesnut brown, and the 

 tail is glossed with steel-blue instead of green. C. philippensis and 

 C. Lathami are also met with at Malacca, and both appear to be much 

 commoner there than the present species. I have also lately received 

 certain information of a Centropus, of the alleged size of C. bengalensis t 

 (and doubtless that species,) occurring in the Calcutta Botanic Garden. 

 My informant brought me C. Lathami from the locality, and stated 

 that he had often there observed the minute species, but was unaware 



* Mr. Jerdon writes me word — "The Picus moluccensis figured in the Planches 

 coloriees is certainly distinct from that of Hardwicke and Gray: the former being 

 of course true moluccensis, and I suspect the same as your canicapillus." — A 

 Javanese specimen just arrived is very doubtfully distinct from that of S. India: and 

 I may add, that in Ur Cantor's Malayan collection is a superb fourth species of Tiga. 



4 F 



