On a New Genus of Insessorial Birds. 47 



scaly insects, and even breeding on, or close to the earth. 

 Now, such in organization and manners is the bird before us, 

 except that it has a bill of a totally different character, 

 approximating it to the Pomatorhini and Upupse. It is 

 therefore a remarkable type, and I hesitate as to its fitting 

 position in any system of classification known to me. But, 

 without further remark upon the question of classification, 

 I will now proceed to a full description of the form and 

 colours of the only species I yet possess, which was shot at 

 an elevation of about 6,000 feet in Sikim. 



The bill is a third longer than the head, slender, and some- 

 what arched, but with the margins entire and the tips blunt, 

 strong and suited to digging, with none of the delicacy of 

 structure that is proper to the bills of suctorial birds. It is 

 cylindric and compressed, but not so much so as in the 

 Pomatorhini, nor is the base so suddenly expanded as in 

 them. The frontal feathers are quite soft ; the moderate 

 gape free from bristles entirely, and the elliptic nostrils com- 

 pletely exposed. The tongue, like the bill, is long and 

 narrow, but flat, simple and not projectile, cartilaginous, with 

 bifid or jagged tip. The plumage is very soft and lax, and is 

 elongated over the rump, but not so as to hide the tail, short 

 as it is. The wings do not exceed the base of the tail, and are 

 galline in form, but feeble as well as bowed, round and short : 

 four plumes are distinctly gradated ; but the rest very gra- 

 dually run into one another, and then fall off towards the 

 short tertials. The tail-feathers are nearly of equal length, and 

 but eight in number, narrow and feeble like the wing- quills. 

 The smooth strong tarse exceeds the central toe and nail 

 in length. The toes are compressed ; the laterals nearly 

 equal ; the central elongate ; and the hind large, equal to the 

 laterals without the nails, much exceeding them with those 

 appendages, but not depressed or wide. The nails, especially 

 in the hind digits, are large and acute, but not much curved. 

 The sternum is flat, short, truncated or square posteally, and 



