76 Mr. W. T. Blanford on Indian and Persian Birds. 
caudata, Dum., and C. gularis, Blyth, unless, indeed, the group 
containing Crateropus chalybceus , Bp., C. acacia, Rupp., &c., 
be removed from the genus (as is done by Gray in his Hand¬ 
list), in which case they would form a subgeneric section. 
Crateropus huttoni is a well-marked species, fairly distinguish¬ 
able by both its size and colour from C. caudatus. There is 
a specimen of the former from Candahar in the British Mu¬ 
seum which agrees with skins obtained by Major St. John 
near Shiraz, the locality of De Filippos species. 
2. Melizophilus striatus, Brooks (P. A. S. B. April 1872, 
p. 66), is not a Melizophilus. It has ten tail-feathers only, 
and is an aberrant Drymceca, and identical with D. inquieta, 
Riipp. RiippelFs figure in the Atlas is so bad that I do not 
wonder at the bird not being recognized. The species, how¬ 
ever, is very well described by v. Heuglin in ‘The Ibis' for 
1869, p. 129. The affinities of the bird are shown not only 
by the number of its tail-feathers, but also by its nest, which 
is domed, as in other species of Drymceca (see Ibis, 1872, 
p. 180). 
It appears to me that this bird has far better claims to form 
the type of a separate genus or subgenus than D. gracilis, 
the type of Burnesia; and I think we should follow S unde vail 
in using for it the term Scotocerca, as he has lately proposed 
in his ‘Methodi Naturalis Avium disponendarum Tentamen' 
(p. 7). . 
By the kindness of Mr. Tristram I have been enabled to 
examine his types of Drymceca eremita and D. striaticeps. 
The former* is certainly identical with D. inquieta; and 1 
much doubt if the latter be more than a variety. It is rather 
paler in colour both above and below; the striae on the throat 
and upper breast are very faint, indeed scarcely to be recog- 
* In the measurements given for D. striaticeps and D. eremita in the 
original descriptions (Ibis, 1859, p. 58, and 1867, p. 76), the length of the 
wing, 2'7o inches, must, I think, be a misprint for T75. I make the wing 
in the two specimens of D. eremita lent me by Mr. Tristram measure T8 
and T85 inch respectively, tail the same in each case as the wing; and in 
the two specimens of D. striaticeps the wing is P82 in both birds, tail 1*87 
and 2-02 inches. 
