NEW GENUS OF INSESSORES. 
651 
3rd species. Brevipes. Less typical than 
either of the foregone. Distinguished for 
the shortness of its tarsi, hardly exceeding 
the elevation in Muscicapa. Bill equal to 
the head, rather more cylindric than in the 
type, and having the frontal band more re- 
stricted but still concealing the nares. The 
lateral and hind toes are distinctly unequal, 
and the feet similar to those of Muscicapa 
Melanops. Size, 6 inches long by 9 wide, and 
^ oz. in weight. Bill ll-16ths. Tail 2-|. 
Tarsus 11-16'ths. Central toe 8-16ths. 
Hind 5.16ths. 
Colour. Mas. above, with the head and 
neck, dark blue, as in the last, but not pur- 
purescent. Lores and frontal band, black 
as before, and similarly margined above by 
a cerulean zone. Wings and tail internally 
black: bottom of neck, breast, and flanks 
rusty : lining of wings, paler : rest of body 
below, white : shoulders and rump hardly 
more brilliant than the general hue : no 
spot on neck: bill black: legs bluish, fleshy 
grey : iris dark. Female, above, subolive, 
passing into chesnut on the wings and tail, 
as in both the precedent : lores, front, 
cheek, neck below, breast, and flanks, rusty 
like the breast and flanks of the male ; the 
rest of the body below, w'hite as in him : 
bill dusky horn ; legs and iris, as in male. 
Young, at first, like female, but with the 
upper parts blotched with buff ; bill brown 
and legs white. In youngish males, the 
flanks are white like the belly, and the chin 
and throat black, wanting the blue supralint 
of maturity. In this state, Gould has figur- 
ed the bird. The whole cap is not light 
blue, but only a zone round the brows from 
behind the eyes. 
Remarks . — From the uniformity of co- 
louring in these three species, it seems pro- 
bable that the peculiar tints of both sexes 
are generically significant. The general 
structure, like the habits, seems borrowed 
equally from the Muscicapidee and Sylviadee. 
In the type or Sundara, the strength and 
form of the bill are quite Phoenicornian, 
with a slight leaning towards Saxicola, to 
which genus this bird is most closely allied 
by the structure of its feet ; as also to Sylvia 
as typed by Hippolais, the Reed wren, and 
the Grasshopper Warbler. In fact, the 
diagnosis of the genus is the union of 
Sylviadan feet with a Muscicapidan bill, 
and the manners expressly pourtray this 
osculant character and position. These 
birds are as much more terrestrial than the 
typical Flycatchers as they are less so than 
the typical Warblers, but taking structure 
and habits together, I conceive their affini- 
ties to lie with the latter family ; their 
analogies with the former. There is a gra- 
dation of characters both in the bills and 
feet leading from Niltava to the next form 
or Siphia which, for the present, I propose 
to consider a subgenus of Niltava, though 
I deem it very possible that our Siphia 
Strophiata may prove to be the type of the 
genus, as exhibiting the fullest development 
of the Flycatcher bill with the Sylvian feet. 
I confess some surprise that any person 
having access to the Libraries and Museums 
of Europe should have ranged our third 
species of Niltava under the genus Phoeni- 
cura, an eminently terrestrial group ap- 
proaching to Motacilla and consequently 
almost antipodaIVto Muscicapa. Mr. Gould’s 
specimen was a young bird evidently, from 
his description of its colours ; and perhaps 
also one under the incipient influence of 
moult ; and hence the porrect subsetaceous 
frontal zone at the base of the bill, so cha- 
racteristic of Niltava, may have been wanting, 
as well as the hook and tooth at its point. 
But the legs and feet, so strictly Muscicapan 
(Melanops), and which, in despite of con- 
formity in other parts of organization as 
well as in manners with Niltava, induce me 
to hesitate in classing the species under 
Niltava, at all events demonstrate that it is 
any thing but a Phoenicura. 
Generis, Niltavse, subgenus ? 
Siphia nobis. 
Siphya of Nepal. 
Bill shorter than the head, shaped as in 
Muscicapa, but less broad and less armed at 
the point. Nares extremely advanced, par- 
tially exposed, and more shaded above by 
the membrane. Tarsi, elevate, slender, 
smooth. Digits and claws as in Niltava ; 
thumb rather less, but not depressed nor 
broad. Plumage long, lax and soft. Wings 
and tail as in Niltava, but the wings scarcely 
so acuminate, having the 4th and oth quills 
frequently equal. Habits and food as in 
Niltava ; but perching and questing lower, 
chiefly in thick brushwood. 
New species and type. Siphia Strophiata 
nobis. Nos. 424-474. Structure and size, 
5^ by 8^ inches, and ^ oz. Bill Tail 2^. 
Tarsus 13-16th. Central toe 8-l6th. Hind 
5-16. Bill to head as 7 to 9. Muscicapan, 
but narrower, more cut out by the nasal 
fossae, and less armed at the tip. 
Frontal zone, close, velvety, not con- 
cealing the nares, but putting off curling 
hairs over them. Rictus short of the eye, 
and provided with long but slender hairs : 
Closed wing 3 inches, whereof the first quill 
is 1:|^, the 2nd 2^, the 3rd 2f , the 4th sub- 
equal or equal to the 5th, and longest. 
Tertials f inch less. Wings to mid-tail or 
more. Tail medial, firm, and even, with the 
caudal and alar plumes finelypointed, thread- 
wise, as in Niltava and in several of the 
