Genus DENDEOPHILA. 
Bill straight, widened at the base ; the culmen gently curved from the base to the tip. 
Nostrils oval and lateral; a few weak rictal bristles. Wings long, pointed; the 1st quill 
exceeding the primary-coverts by about 0-2 inch, the 4th the longest, and the 2nd shorter than 
the 6th. Tail very short, slightly exceeding the closed wing. Tarsus short, scaled, exceeding 
the middle toe, which is shorter than the hind ; outermost toe much exceeding the inner and 
syndactyle ; hind claw very large and much curved. 
DENDEOPHILA EEONTALIS. 
(THE INDIAN BLUE NUTHATCH.) 
Sitta frontalis, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 162 (1821). 
Sitta coralUna, Hodgson, J. A. S. B. 1836, v. p. 779 ; Gray’s Zool. Miscell. p. 82 (1840). 
DendropMla frontalis (Horsf.), Jerdon, Madr. Journ. 1839, xi. p. 218 ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. 
A. S. B. spec. B & C, p. 190 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 120 (1852); Layard, 
Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1863, xii. p. 176 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 388 (1862) ; Holdsw. 
P. Z. S. 1872, p. 435; Hume, Nests and Eggs, i. p. 161 (1873); Legge, Ibis, 1874, 
p. 16 ; Bourdillon, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 393; Fairbank, ibid. 1877, p. 399 ; Hume and 
Davison, B. of Tenass., Str. Feath. 1878, p. 201. 
Bendropliila coralUna (Hodgs.), Hume, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 89; Sharpe, ibid. 1876, p. 436. 
The Velvet fronted Nuthatch, Jerdon; The Tree-creeper, The Blue Creeper, Europeans in 
Ceylon. 
Adult male and female. Length 6’1 to 5‘2 inches ; wing 2‘9 to 3'15 ; tail 1'8 ; tarsus 0'65 to 0-7; middle toe and 
claw 0'75 ; hind toe 0'6, its claw (straight) 0-35 ; bill to gape 0'67 to 0‘73. 
Iris pale golden yellow, eyelid greenish leaden, orbital skin dusky yellowish ; bill coral-red, the tip of upper mandible 
nearly always blackish ; legs and feet wood-brown, claws pale horny, soles duU yellowish. 
Male. Above casrulean blue, somewhat deeper on the upper tail-coverts and shoulder, and changing at the edge of 
the frontal band into lazuline blue ; lores, a broad band across the forehead, and a streak over the eyes to the 
nape deep velvety black ; quills and most part of tail dull black ; secondaries edged with the hue of the back; 
several of the primaries with a whitish-bluo margin ; central tail-feathers dull blue, .and the tips and outer edges 
of the remainder bluish, the under surface of the feathers being greyish ; just below the eye a slight wash of blue ; 
cheeks, ear-coverts, and the neck just beneath them lilac ; chin and upper part of throat wliitish, changing into the 
brownish- or fulvous-lilac of tho whole under surface ; tibia and under tail-coverts w'ashed with bluish grey. 
Pemaile. H ants the black superciliary stripe, and has the lores edged wuth bluish. In most specimens I have seen 
there is a series of one or two dark spots across the shaft of the centre tail-feathers, which seems peculiar to 
this sex. 
Young. The bird of the year has the terminal portion of the upper mandible blackish, and the sincipital stripe, in the 
male, smaller than in the adult. 
Ohs. Mr. Sharpe, on the evidence of a small series of skins in the British Museum, has recently pointed out that the 
Javan bird is distinct from the Indian, inasmuch as it has the throat coucolorous with the chest and not white 
as in the latter, and also the under surface richer in colour. I have examined the series in question, and also 
some skins of the late Mr. A. Anderson’s collecting, and find that 3 Malayan examples from Java, Sarawak, and 
