Viscount Walden on the Muscicapa melanictera. 319 
given agrees in every respect with my Ceylon specimens, and 
consequently with Le Cap Negre. A few years later, Dr. Jerdon, 
in his f Catalogue of the Birds of Southern India/ described a 
short-footed Thrush from Malabar, under the title of Brachypus 
rubineus , which species, in the distribution of the colouring, and, 
indeed, in the actual tints of the upper surface of the body-plu¬ 
mage, very closely resembles my Ceylon specimens; but it is 
of a somewhat smaller size, and the coloration of the under sur¬ 
face, as well as that of the wings and tail, is very different. The 
chin is black, the throat a bright flame-coloured orange, and 
the remainder of the under plumage is more of an orange than 
a saffron-yellow. The quills and rectrices are olive-brown, and 
much paler than those of my Ceylon specimen, and the white 
terminal caudal band is wanting. Dr. Jerdon gave a good 
figure of this bird in his f Illustrations of Indian Ornithology ' 
for 1846, at the time suggesting that his might be the same 
bird as Mr. Gould's B. gularis , and remarking that although Mr. 
Gould had omitted a description of the throat, it was probably 
through error, “ as the specific name is derived therefrom." Now 
this was merely a surmise of Dr. Jerdon, and did not rest upon 
a comparison made between the two types. To me it appears 
improbable that the most prominent feature in B. rubineus , its 
bright orange throat, should have been omitted in Mr. Gould's 
diagnosis. The name gularis might most appropriately have 
been given to a specimen of the Ceylon bird; for in it the yellow 
of the throat is very much narrowed by the black of the border¬ 
ing cheek-plumage, and contrasts, by its greater purity, with 
the more olive-yellow of the breast. Anyhow, as Mr. Gould's 
description does not resemble B. rubineus , Jerd., in its most 
essential character, and does agree in every respect with Le Cap 
Negre , I am obliged to make it a synonym of the latter spe¬ 
cies ; and when we consider the number of Malabar species that 
also exist in Ceylon, the supposed Travancore origin of Mr. 
Gould's type is not an insuperable objection to such a reduc¬ 
tion. I also see that Mr. Gray, in his f Genera of Birds,' keeps 
B.gularis, Gould, and B. rubineus , Jerd., distinct, while Sundevall 
makes B. gularis, Gould, a synonym of Le Cap Negre . 
In a synopsis of the Brachijpodinee, published in the { Journal 
