1847.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 137 



others. Lastly, Mr. Eyton, as noticed in XVHr 10, has recently assigned 

 three Malacca species to Brachypteryx, all of which I had previously 

 described and referred to Timalia, in which genus I would still 

 decidedly retain them ; and another of my Timalia? he lias classed in 

 his Malacopteron, while he refers also to Malacopteron an unquestion- 

 able Bulboul, my Ixidia cyaniventris : Br. nigrocapitata, Eyton, 

 P. Z. S. 1839, p. 103, has more the technical features of true 

 Brachypteryx; but its affinities would seem to be rather with the 

 Malacopteron series. 



To Brachypteryx must also be approximated the curious little birds 

 first classed by Mr. Hodgson under his Tesia, and of which he has 

 since made two genera — Pnoepyga and Oligura, in Ann. Mag. N. H. 

 1845, p. 195. These I have also treated of in XIV, 586; and if the 

 two sub-groups are to be separated, the name Tesia must be retained 

 in lieu of Oligura for the one section (this containing the species at 

 the head of those first described under that name), while Microura of 

 Gould (unless pre-occupied)* must stand for Pnoepyga, Hodgson, in- 

 asmuch as it was long previously applied to the same special group.")* 

 Three of the species referred to Pnoepyga by Mr. Hodgson are merely 

 varieties of one species, as shewn in XIV, 586. 



T. (v. Oligura) auriceps, Hodgson, n. s. ( Non vidi.J " Above 

 flavescent-olive, below pure deep slaty ; the cap golden-yellow : bill 

 coral-red below, dusky above : legs dusky flesh-colour. Length three 

 inches and a half ; bill six-tenths of an inch; tail nine-tenths; wing 

 an inch and two-tenths ; tarse an inch ; central toe and nail seven- 

 tenths ; head five-tenths. Hab. Sikim. The bill of this bird is de- 

 pressed ; rictus hispid ; lateral toes unequal, the hind large ; and nails 

 acute : by all which marks, in common with T. cyaniventer and [cas- 

 taneo-coronata, v.~~\flaviventer, the type is proved to be different from 

 [Microura, v.] Pnoepyga." Hodgson's MS. 



* It is, 1 find, pre-occupied by Ehrenberg, for a genus of Vermes. 



■f Aipenumia of Swainson, described in the Appendix to Vol. II of the Fauna 

 Americana-borealis, certainly refers to these birds, comprehending, I think, both 

 groups ; and it is of prior application by many years to the other names : but which 

 of the sub-groups it should be retained for is uncertain, as Mr. S. refers to undescribed 

 species only. Tesia of Hodgson, as originally proposed, would in such case be quite 

 synonymous ; and if Aipenumia be restored, it might therefore be substituted for 

 Tesia in the more limited sense of the latter appellation. 



