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Show 1878.] MR. H. SEEBOHM ON HORORNIS FORTIPES, ETC. 981 Brooks obtained this species in Cashmere ; Mandelli has sent skins from Darjeeling; Hodgson found it in Nepal, and Godwin-Austen in Assam. Swinhoe's type from Formosa seems less remotely situated when we remember that Pere David obtained the nearly allied species (Horeites major and II. brunneifrons) in China, where the species under consideration doubtless also occurs. I place this species in the genus Cettia, because it agrees with the type of that genus in having only ten tail-feathers, somewhat similarly graduated, and because both species have a somewhat similar bill, and a rounded wing, not flat like that of a Thrush, but twisted like a plough-plate to fit the body, evidently adapted less for extended flight than to be out of the way when the bird is creeping through dense foliage. Both species agree in having the feathers of the rump considerably developed, and in laying eggs of a uniform dark-red colour in a cup-shaped nest. The position of this genus is somewhat intermediate between the Turdince and the Timeliinee. So far as I can see at present, I feel disposed to restrict the Turdince to birds with a comparatively flat wing, in which the first primary is almost obsolete, whilst the second is lengthened with the other primaries, forming a long pointed wing, adapted for the extended flight of species whose winter-home may be thousands of miles away from their breeding-stations. This scheme would include the Chats, Thrushes, Redstarts, AVarblers, and Accentors in the Turdince, and leave the short-winged Warblers, such as Prinia, Cisticola, &c, to take their place along with the Babblers and Bulbuls in the Timeliinee. This latter group of birds is characterized by having strong legs and feet, adapted for creeping through tangled foliage, whilst their wings, instead of being flat, are moulded to fit the body of the bird and to occupy as little room as possible. The conformation of the wing is ill-adapted to extended flight. The first primary is large and takes its place naturally beside the shortened second primary, so that it no longer deserves to be called a bastard primary. The other primaries are also short and graduated in length, making a short rounded wing, sufficient for birds whose annual migrations are confined to such narrow limits that they can often look down from the mountains where they breed onto the plain or into the valleys, where they find an abundant supply of winter food. . It must be admitted, however, that in many genera of the Turdince we find approaches to the Timeliinee, so as to make the two subfamilies not only to come into contact with each other but some. times to overlap, so that we may have occasionally a turdine species of the Timeliinee more turdine than the most timelnne species of the Turdince These little difficulties are very puzzling to the systematic ornithologist; but possibly they may be evidence that his system is a natural one rather than otherwise. . The following list of skins examined will show how impossible it is to draw any distinction in respect of size between the four reputed species which I propose to unite :- PROC ZOOL. Soc-1878, No, LXIV. 64 |
