NEW SPECIES OF MALABAROIDES NOBIS. CALGIA OF NEPAL. 32.5 
er above than below. Coeca ^ of an inch. 
Stomach muscular and red; outer coat of 
medial unequal thickness ; inner, tough and 
striolated. Food, chiefly wasps, bees, and 
their congeners, also green beetles, and 
other coleoptera ; very rarely vetches. Soli- 
tary or in pairs, part of the year in families 
the young with the parents, never quits the 
forests ; descends from time to time from its 
lofty perch to seize on the wing, occasion- 
ally seizes on the ground, but instantly re- 
turns to its perch. Common to all the three 
! regions of Nepal. Moults in autumn between 
' August and October, and, I think, only in 
autumn. 
Colour, black, most brilliantly burnished 
with metallic green on the alar and caudal 
plumes, as well as on the elongate cervical 
ones; but intense purplish blue, for the most 
part, on the body, the lores., and ears, unpo- 
lished black: the wing and tail, internally, 
glossy black, without accessory hue : bill, 
dusky : legs, jetty: iris, brown. Sexes alike 
both in size and colours : the lining of the 
wings, in male and female, apt to be spotted 
with white ; as I think only in summer, and 
the mark seems generic. 
"" 2nd Species, new Malabaroides nobis. 
Calgia (quasi cristatus) of Nepal. 
Form and size Tip of bill to tip of ordinary 
tail 15 inches, where of the bill is and the 
tail 7. Appendage of the latter, 8 more. 
Tarsus ; central toe ; hindjg; weight 3^ 
oz. The external and internal characters, like 
the habits and manners, of this species are, 
in general, strictly similar to those of the 
precedent. We shall distinguish wherever 
there is room for it. The bill, equally long 
in proportion to the head, is noticeably 
straighter, less compressed forwards and 
rather more keeled and plumed at the base ; 
its mandibles are less equal, less acute, and 
they have the terminal curve and recurve, 
tooth and notch, more distinct. The gene- 
ral form of the bill is distinctly tetragonal, 
the mere tip only being compressed. But 
there is, as before, as. much height as 
breadth at the base, and the bill is no where 
depressed. The more advanced nares are, 
however, much nearer to the gape than to 
the tip. They are shaped, rnembraned, and 
plumore, as before ; but their plumes are of 
a different character. The close velvety 
short capistral feathers of casia are replaced 
by long setaceous and erect ones shooting 
upwards and forwards far beyond the culmen ; 
whilst the graceful comate crest of casia is 
supplied by hardy less graceful plumose one, 
consisting of narrow, composed, erect, and 
recurved plumes inserted laterally and op- 
positely on each side the base of the bill. 
These hairs in casia are 4^ inches long, 
and consequently fall over the shoulders. The 
analogous plumes in malabaroides are but 
two inches long ; and, being firm and erect at 
their insertion, are restricted to the crown 
of the head, over which they make a bold and 
elegant curve. The tongue is rather shorter 
and somewhat less feathered. The legs and 
feet and wings are identical in both. The 
tail has the same proportion to the body and 
the same number of plumes ; but these plumes 
in malabaroides are palpably forked, the 
centrals being | of an inch shorter than the 
laterals ; excluding, of course, the oar- 
shaped appendages of the tail. The latter are 
scarcely more than as long again as the true 
tail ; at their separation from which the shafts 
become denuded of webs until 3§ inches from 
the ends, that space being occupied by a broad 
paddle-like vane restricted to the inner side, 
though constantly reverted (by curvation) 
to the outer. 
Colour. Bill and legs bothjetty, and iris 
dark brown. Plumage uniform black, bur- 
nished as in the precedent but rather less 
highly. Head and neck plumes, especially 
the latter, similarly elongated and lanceolate. 
Setaceous feathers of the lores, chin, and ears, 
unglossed. Sexes alike in all respects ; and 
both apt to have the lining of the wings white - 
spotted. 
Remark . — Amid the imperfect, and, in some 
respects, contradictory indications of books, 
I discern the evident affinity of this species 
with malabaricus vel retifer. I have there- 
fore called it malabaroides. Is frequently 
caged for its song ; and, if let loose in a 
house, will eagerly catch and devour the 
small lizards so common in Bengal residen- 
cies. 
Sub genus Bhi'inga nobis. 
3rd Species, new. Tectirostris nobis. 
Size and form, 11 inches long by 16 wide, 
and 2| oz. in weight. Bill Ifg; tail 5| ; 
appendage of tail 12; tarsus ; central toe 
, hind fg. This species, to the habits and 
manners of the two precedent, unites a plu- 
masje and a general structui’e also similar to 
theirs, with the material exception of the 
bill, which both in form and proportion de- 
viates from the rostrum of the two last to 
approximate to the familiar species hereafter 
described. It is as nearly allied to Temmincks 
remifer as its predecessor is to malabaricus. 
Bill scarcely a fourth longer than the head, 
strong, straight, but with the raised acute 
culmen arched from the nares not hooked ;* 
tetragonal, at base broader than high, and a 
good deal spread except near the tip, where it 
is extremely compressed. Curve and recurve, 
tooth and notch, all rather prominent. Upper 
mandible half keeled, and nearly hid by 
setaceous incumbent plumes (unde nomen). 
Nostrils midway to the tip from the gape, 
small, I’ound, subvertically exposed, without 
membranous tect, and hid by the plumes just 
mentioned, behind which, the thick set, soft, 
composed and simple feathers of the fore- 
head rise, helping, with the former, to con- 
• Note. -The true hook or falconine pro- 
cess of the maxilla is confined to the typical 
shrikes. The Bush shrikes have it in a feei-ler 
form. The Edolian and Ceblepyrine shrikes 
■want it almost wholly. This is the g-eneral 
rule : but, as we shall see, the hook is distinctly 
developed in our Bhuchangas. 
