1845.] or little known species of Birds. 201 



scarcely a trace of the brown is visible ; lower parts paler, slightly 

 washed with ferruginous on the fore-neck and breast, the belly and 

 lower portion of the tibial plumes deep ferruginous, of a much darker 

 shade than in the other species : tail with all but its middle pair of 

 feathers broadly tipped with white, as in both the others. Peculiar, 

 I suspect, to the sub- Himalayan region. 



2. T. sirkee ; Centropus sirkee, Hardwicke and Gray : C. cuculoides, 

 Smith and Pearson, /. A. S. X, 659. This is probably that, next 

 mentioned by Latham as figured in a drawing ; and it is of course the 

 Cawnpore species subsequently noticed by him as weighing " four 

 ounces eight drachms." I believe it also to be that figured by Hard- 

 wicke, and referred to by Latham as weighing but " three ounces six 

 drachms and a half ;" a difference from the preceding which might de- 

 pend upon condition, and to a certain extent on sex, these birds being 

 often extremely fat. Describing from Hardwicke's drawing, Latham 

 gives the two middle tail-feathers as " eight inches in length," but 

 from the published copy of the same drawing, I should say that they were 

 nearly ten inches. A fine specimen before me (from Cawnpore) mea- 

 sures seventeen inches in length, the tail nine and a half, its outermost 

 feathers three and three-quarters less ; wing six inches ; and tarse an 

 inch and a half. Upper parts much paler and more brown than in the 

 preceding species, having scarcely a trace of the green ; below paler fer- 

 ruginous, more generally and uniformly diffused on the belly, flanks, and 

 tibial plumes, and tinging much more deeply the fore-neck and breast. 

 Mr. C. W. Smith describes the upper parts as being of a brownish satin 

 colour, a term which does not convey a very definite idea in the ab- 

 sence of a specimen, but which is nevertheless sufficiently recognisable 

 when the bird is under examination : the hue is lighter and more rufe- 

 scent than in the next species. Hab. Bengal. 



3. T. Leschenaultii, Lesson : Zanclostomus sirkee, apud Jerdon. Dis- 

 tinguished by its inferior size, and generally more or less ashy fore- 

 neck and breast, and whitish throat ; the ferruginous colour of the belly 

 is scarcely so deep as in the last, and there appears always to be a 

 marked distinction of hue between the breast and belly, although the 

 former is more or less tinged with ferruginous ; whereas in the Bengal 

 species there is no such marked distinction of hue, the fore- neck and 

 breast being concolorous with the belly, or very nearly so, shading im- 



