1845.] or little known species of Birds, 205 



second No. of his ( Illustrations of Indian Ornithology,' provisionally 

 assented to this suggestion ; but with proper distrust, *' in a genus 

 where the plumage is so very similar," remarked that the bird of 

 Southern India might yet prove to be distinct, in which case he pro- 

 posed for it the specific name atripennis : Mr. Strickland, however, 

 has informed me that he had lately received from Mr. Jerdon " a 

 specimen of his small C. macrurus from the Neilgherries, which 

 evidently seems to be the same as Horsfield's macrurus" ; yet it does 

 not appear that the latter naturalist actually compared the two toge- 

 ther, and the Society has now a distinct Malacca species which I 

 feel very confident will prove to be the true macrurus of Hors- 

 field, and I as little doubt that the species of Southern India is 

 C. mahrattensis of Sykes. That immediately under consideration 

 is acknowledged by Mr. Strickland to be quite distinct, and this 

 naturalist has suggested for it the felicitous name gagateus, " from 

 its rich agate-like markings:" of its identity, however, with the species 

 named as above by Captain Tickell, I feel no doubt, although the 

 statement of that observer that the sexes are alike, does not fully 

 apply. It is a common bird in Lower Bengal during the cold season, 

 and appears to be generally diffused throughout Northern India, 

 but it has not been met with in the southern part of the country, 

 where it would seem to be replaced by the next. A fine male of 

 C. albonotatus measured thirteen inches long, by twenty-five in 

 spread of wing ; the closed wing nine inches, and tail seven inches : 

 a small female eleven and a half, by twenty-one inches; wing eight 

 and three-eighths, and tail six and five-eighths. The tarse (as in the 

 others,) is anteriorly feathered nearly to the toes. This bird has the 

 crown and tertiaries light cinerascent, minutely mottled, and marked 

 with a stripe of black dashes along the middle of the crown : upper 

 range of scapularies black, more developed in the male, and bordered, 

 more broadly externally, with rufescent- white : lores and ear-coverts 

 brown : wing-coverts black, mottled with rufous, and largely tipped 

 with rufescent-white : a broad white patch in front of the neck, as 

 in several allied species: there is a band of white on the primaries, 

 contracted and rufescent in the female ; and the two outer tail-feathers 

 are broadly tipped with white in the male, and much less broadly tip- 

 ped with slightly mottled pale rufescent in the female. Altogether 

 the females are much paler, and browner or less ashy, than the other 



