Genus ELAPHEOEXIS 
Bill straight, compressed, rather slender; culmen straight at the base, the tip notched. 
Nostrils oblong and oblique ; rictal bristles feeble. Wings short and rounded, the 5th, 6th, and 
7th quills subequal and longest, the 1st about half their length. Tail exceeding the wing by 
the length of the hind toe, of 12 feathers, lax and graduated. Tarsus longer than the middle 
toe and its claw, and covered with long obsolete scales ; anterior toes slender, the hallux stout. 
Plumage lax and soft ; the feathers of the back much lengthened. Nape furnished with 
abnormal hair-like feathers. 
ELAPHEOENIS PALLISEEI. 
(PALLISER^S ANT-THEUSH.) 
(Peculiar to Ceylon.) 
Bracliypteryx palliseri, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1852, xx. p. 178; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 102 
(1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 269; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, 
p. 443, pi. xviii. 
Kelaartia palUseri, Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 312. no. 4668 (1869). 
(3 ad. supra brunneus, pileo saturatiore et magis olivascente : tectricibus alarum bruunei.s dorsi colore lavatis : remi- 
gibus brunneis, extus olivascentibus : cauda saturate brunuoa, rectricibus clstriore bruuneo lavatis : loris cineras- 
centi-albis : lineS. superciltari cinerascento iiidistincta : regione parotlca. et plumis iufraocularibus brunneis, 
anguste albido lineatis : gula pallide cerviuo-rufa : pectore olivascente flavo lavato, lateraliter ciueraceo adumbrate; 
corporis lateribus, tibiis et subcaudalibus brunneis : abdomine medio pallid^ flavo : subalaribus olivascenti-brunueis : 
remigibus infri brunneis, intus pallide marginatis : rostro nigro, maudibula pallidiore : pedibus purpurascenti- 
brunneis : iride 3 pallide rubri, J flaveseenti-cerviua. 
Adult male and female. Length 6-4 to 6-75 inches ; wing 2-35 to 2-65 ; tail 2-5 to 2'7 ; tarsus I'O to !•! ; middle toe 
and claw 0'8 to 0’85 ; bill to gape 0'73 to 0'87. The female is the smaller of the sexes. 
Male. Iris clear red ; bill black, slate at the base beneath ; legs and feet deep neutral brown or purplish brown, claws 
pale brownish horn. 
Female. Iris bufi. 
Above olive-brown, darkest on the forehead, and changing to rusty brown on the rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail, the 
centre of the tail-feathers darker than the margins ; wings dark brown, the outer webs of the quills rusty olive- 
brown ; lores just beneath the eye, as also the ear-coverts, blackish brown, the latter with pale striae ; a faint light 
stripe passing from the bill over the eye ; oi-bits greyish ; chin whitish, changing into buff-yellow on the gorge 
and upper part of throat, which blends into the olivaceous slate-colour of the chest and sides of breast ; lower 
flanks and under tail-coverts rusty brown ; centre of the breast and the belly flavescent, blending into the 
surrounding colour. 
Toung. Iris, in the male pale reddish bufi ; in the female white. 
06s. A question to be decided by future obesrvation is whether the iris of the female ever turns red. I have one 
specimen with a faint inner reddish circle ; but I have never shot one with a red iris like that of the male, the 
* From eXa^pos, nimble, active. 
