1847.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 153 



Pallasii, Tem., figured in Gould's ' Century.' Allied to this is C. ameri- 

 canus, Say, of the Rocky Mountains of North America. Of the third 

 and well known European species, C. aquaticus, found also in Western 

 Asia, Mr. Yarrell states that the sexes are alike in plumage ; but in 

 specimens of this bird in the Society's Museum, from England and 

 Norway, there is a very marked sexual diversify, such as described in 

 Fleming's { British Animals.' 



Brachyurus, Thunberg : Pitta, Vieillot. There are at least four 

 marked sub-groups comprehended under this genus, as follow : — 1. Pa- 

 ludicola, Hodgson ; a name pre-occupied for a genus of reptiles. To 

 this must be referred Myiothera ccerulea, Raffles, v. Pitta gigas, Tem., 

 from Malacca and Sumatra : and Pal. nipalensis, Hodgson, from Nepal, 

 Darjeeling, and Arracan. — 2. The group exemplified by Myiothera 

 affinis, Horsf., v. Pitta cyanura, Tem. ; to which, as an aberrant 

 species, may be referred P. cyanea, nobis, XII, 1008, from Arracan 

 and Tenasserim. The affinity of these two species is more obvious in 

 the female sex. Fine specimens of Br. cyaneus are more brilliant than 

 those formerly described from, each feather of the breast and belly 

 being of a beautiful light blue, with a round subterminal black spot 

 and bars above this. The female is blue only on the tail, but with 

 an admixture of this hue on the dull greenish back. — 3. The form of 

 P. granatina, Tem., v. coccinea, Eyton : with very long tarse, short 

 wings, &c. — 4. The ordinary Brachyuri, of which three species are 

 admissable into the Fauna Indica : viz. Br. triostegus, (Sparrman), 

 v. malaccensis* (Scop.), v. superciliaris, (Wagler, after Sonnerat, Voy. 

 aux Indes Orient., pi. 1 1 0), also abdominalis, (Wagler, after Edwards, 

 pi. 324), and Pitta brachyura apud Vigors, Gould, and others, which 

 name applies to an allied species from the Philippines. This is the com- 

 mon Indian species, and the only one found generally over the country 

 from the Himalaya to Ceylon, and which is occasionally to be obtained 

 near Calcutta, as in the Botanic Garden ; but I have never seen it from 

 the eastward of the Bay of Bengal. — Br. cyanopterus, (Tem.), v. ma- 

 laccensis apud nos, XII, 960 : common in the countries eastward of the 

 Bay, from Arracan to Malacca :— and Br. cucullatus, (Hartlaub), v. 



* This specific name has the priority; but as the bird does not inhabit the Malayan 

 Peninsula, it is a misnomer that cannot be retained. To Mr. Strickland I am indebted 

 for several of the above cited synonymes. 



