134 Notices and Descriptions of various New [Feb. 



nobis, XII, 962. This Malayan Redstart has lately been received by 

 the Society from Java, two males and a female, so that it will probably 

 have been named by M. Temminck :* the female is plain brown above, 

 paler beneath, with rufous tail, and the same great white wing-spot as 

 in the male. — 4. R. cceruleocephala, Vigors: a typical species, but re- 

 markable for not having the tail rufous as in the others. Himalaya. — 5. 

 R. airata, (Latham) : the only Redstart which is diffused generally over 

 the country. — 6. R. frontalis, Vigors : apparently the most common of 

 the Himalayan Redstarts, from Simla to Darjeeling ; and remarkable for 

 its terminal black tail-band. — 7. R. fuliginosa, (Vigors), v. plumbea, 

 Gould. Rather an aberrant species, with small short bill ; and presenting 

 a singular diversity in the plumage of the sexes, — the male being uniform 

 dusky-grey, with dark ferruginous tail and coverts, — the female paler 

 ashy, with whitish lower- parts, each feather margined with the colour of 

 the back, and no rufous on the tail, which is white at base, extending 

 over nearly the whole of its outermost feathers, and its upper and lower 

 coverts also being pure white. From the Himalaya generally, and 

 said to resemble the next species in its habits. 



8. R. leucocephala, (Vigors and Gould), v. Sylvia erythrogastra, var. 

 A, Lath., is the type of Mr. Hodgson's Chcemorrhous. The sexes are 

 similar ; but I can perceive no structural distinction from the true 

 Redstarts. This remarkable and beautiful species is stated, however, 

 by Mr. Hodgson to differ considerably in habit from the latter, keep- 

 ing always about mountain torrents ; and Captain Hutton writes me 

 word, that it is very common in the valley of the Dhoon, and also in the 

 hills along the banks of streams and rivers, " flitting from rock to 

 rock and stone to stone, and eternally shaking its tail and spreading it 

 by turns." The last is a characteristic peculiarity of the true Red- 

 starts ; and Lord A. Hay, who has obliged me with a similar account of 

 the habits of this bird, sees nothing in them at variance with the gene- 

 ric habits of other Ruticillce. 



Calliope, Gould. The type of this group is the very Thrush-like 

 (in structure and habits) C. camtschatkensis, (Gm.), v. C. Lathami, 

 Gould, and Motacilla calliope, Pallas. This bird is common in Lower 

 Bengal during the cold season, and occurs in central India. A second 



* Unless, as is not improbable, M. Temminck considers it to be a mere "climatal 

 or local variety" of R, phosnicurus. 



