1845.] » or little known Species of Birds. 577 



nearly 80, of wing three and a quarter, and middle tail-feathers three 

 inches, the outermost five-eighths of an inch shorter ; bill to gape 

 three-quarters of an inch, and tarse half an inch. Colour plain brown 

 above, darkest on the crown, wings and tail, the caudal feathers being 

 dusky, with pale tips to the outer ones ; under-parts paler, especially on 

 the abdomen and throat i the plumage of the rump copious, as usual, 

 and of a dusky colour, with dull yellowish-brown terminal fringes : 

 bill deep horn-colour, and legs brown. For permission to describe 

 this species, I am indebted to Dr. Theodore Cantor, whose very ex- 

 tensive collection of Malayan birds, &c. when these come to be un- 

 packed and examined, will doubtless yield other novelties. Br. tristis 

 inhabits Penang, where it is not very common. 



Lastly, as a very aberrant species, may be provisionally ranged 



6 ? Br. ? criniger,* A. Hay. The beak in this bird is vertically much 

 less high than in the others, and altogether the species has a good deal 

 the character of an Alcippe (nobis, J. A. S. XIII, 384), excepting in its 

 very small tarsi and toes. Length about six inches, of wing two and 

 seven-eighths, and tail the same, its outermost feathers a quarter of an 

 inch less ; bill to gape eleven-sixteenths, and tarse nine-sixteenths, the 

 middle toe and claw but half an inch. Colour olive-green above, the 

 coronal feathers, wings and tail, brunnescent ; lores, ear-coverts, and 

 the whole under-parts, yellowish, brightest on the belly and lower tail- 

 coverts, passing to whitish on the centre of the throat, and mingled with 

 olive-green on the breast and flanks : three outermost tail-feathers 

 slightly tipped with yellowish on their inner webs. Bill dusky above, 

 and pale below : legs and claws white. The coronal feathers are 

 rounded, and of very different texture from those of the back ; the rictal 

 setae are well developed ; and there is a remarkable nuchal tuft of eight 

 or ten straight black hairs, the longest of which are an inch and five- 

 eighths in length in the specimen examined. Inhabits Malacca. 



Microtarsus, Eyton, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, p. 102. This is nearly 

 allied to the preceding group. 



1. M. melanoleucos, Eyton, ibid. Common at Malacca. 



Finally, Ixodia, nobis. Allied to the last genus, and in its squared tail 



to Rubigula. Bill small and compressed, widening very little at base, 



the tip of the upper mandible but faintly emarginated, and the gape 



* Can this be the Setornis criniger of Lesson, the description of which 1 have not 

 seen ? It certainly ranges most properly as a distinct division. 



