596 Notices and Descriptions of various new [No. 164. 



Gampsorhynchus rufulus, nobis, J. A. S. XIII, 371. Four speci- 

 mens of this curious bird are now before me, of which two are from 

 Darjeeling, and the others from the mountains of Arracan : and it is 

 remarkable that all of these appear to be partially affected with albinism. 

 All four resemble in having the under-parts vivid white, with a tinge of 

 ferruginous on the flanks; and the upper are bright olive-brown in- 

 clining to ferruginous, the tail-feathers tipped paler: all, too, have more 

 or less white on the shoulder of the wing, though reduced to a single 

 feather upon one wing only, of one of them, while another has about 

 half an inch of the shoulder of each wing white, and the rest shew a 

 greater or less admixture of white on the same part: but the crown 

 varies most remarkably, being either pure white or bright ferruginous, 

 or the two variously intermixed, and without either depending on age 

 or season, as new feathers may be seen growing of both. In its affini- 

 ties, this genus exhibits a very close approach to Sphenura, more so 

 than I had recognised upon the examination of the first specimen only ; 

 but the more developed bill, and distinctly notched and hooked upper 

 mandible, with the diminished curvature of the rictal bristles, which 

 however are equally rigid, and longer and more tapering, fully autho- 

 rise its separation from the form of Sphenura striata, though it is 

 likely enough that species will eventually be found to connect them 

 by intermediate links. 



We have accordingly now the following Indian genera of this 

 group: — Sphenura, Licht. (v. Dasyornis, Vig. and Horsf.) ; — Gamp- 

 sorhynchus, nobis ; — Arundinax, nobis ; — Laticilla, nobis (olim Eury- 

 cercus, J. A. S. XIII, 374, which name cannot be retained, as it was 

 previously applied to a genus of Entomostraca by Dr. W. Baird, in the 

 An. and Mag. Nat. Hist, February, 1843, p. 88); — and Schcenicola, 

 nobis, XIII, 374: all these being distinct from the extra-Indian (so 

 far as at present ascertained) Sphenceacus, Strickland, which again is 

 closely allied* : so also is Megalurus, Horsf. (vide XIII, 372) ; and we 



* U le Fluteur of Levaillant, which is the type of Mr. Strickland's Sphenceacus, 

 be correctly figured by Mr. Swainson (who terms it Malurus africanus) , it would 

 have a much thicker bill than Sph. gramineus, Gould, figured in the " Birds of Aus- 

 tralia," so much so that the two could scarcely range together in the same minimum 

 group, though in other respects they would seem to resemble very closely. The Cm- 

 clorhamphus cruralis of Gould, founded on the Megalurus cruralis, Vig. and Horsf., 

 is a^form nearly allied to true Megalurus, and like the latter and also Sphenura, the 

 female is very much smaller than the male, this disparity being even greater than in 

 its Indian affines. I have never had an opportunity of observing the habits of Mega- 



