1847.] New or Little Known Species of Birds. 461 



river-side ; and it frequently flies out to feed among the thin herbage 

 growing along the margin of the sand-dunes.* 



Malacqpteron group. I know of no birds more difficult to arrange 

 than the chiefly Malayan series nearly allied to true Timalia, to certain 

 species of which Mr. Eyton first gave the name Malacqpteron. Twelve 

 or more species of this series are now before me. 



First, following true Timalia and Macronous, we have Turdinus, 

 nobis, XIII, 382, founded on M. macrodactylus of Strickland. Lord 

 Arthur Hay has recently added, with a mark of doubt, a species which 

 his lordship terms Turdinus ? superciliaris (Madr. Journ. No. XXXI, 

 p. 163); but suggests a divisional name, Turdirostris, and defines its 

 characters, in case should it be deemed separable, which I now consider it 

 to be. Indeed, I am not satisfied that its affinities are not rather with 

 Copsychus and Kittacincla (p. 139, ante). 



Next, might come M. magnum of Eyton, with which I would only 

 place an allied and larger species of the series before me, which may be 

 described as 



Malacopteron majus, nobis. Length seven inches and a half, or 

 more ; of wing three and a half; and tail three inches : bill to gape an 

 inch ; and tarse thirteen-sixteenth s of an inch. Colour resembling that 

 of M . magnum, except that the upper tail-coverts are brighter rufous, 

 and that the rufous feathers of the forehead and vertex are not tipped 

 with black. Found at Malacca. What appears to be a female of this 

 bird has been since received from Penang. Colour the same, except 

 that the head is plain brown, like the back, and the tail is more rufous 

 underneath : there is a dark line from the base of the lower mandible, 

 bordering the white throat ; and the wing does not exceed three inches. 



M. magnum, Eyton, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 103. Length approaching 

 to six inches ; of wing two inches and seven-eighths ; and tail two and 

 three-quarters ; bill to gape above three-quarters of an inch ; and tarse 

 three-quarters. Colour olive-brown above, greyish towards the neck, 

 more rufous over the rump, and the tail brownish-ferruginous ; forehead 

 and vertex bright rufous, the feathers narrow-spatulate, of rigid texture, 

 and tipped with black ; occiput black ; the small feathers around the 



* Lord A. Hay informs me of an additional undescribed species, very common in the 

 Upper Provinces, which he calls Dr. terrestris ( Non vidi). This specific name has, 

 however, been previously applied to a South African Cisticola. 



