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Show 196 MR. SHARPE ON A NEW GENUS OF TIMELIID^E. [Jail. 18, coverts and quills light brown, edged with yellowish olive ; tail-feathers light brown, margined narrowly with yellowish olive ; lores and a very faintly indicated eyebrow light yellow, in front of the eye a dusky spot; cheeks and ear-coverts yellow, mottled with dusky brown tips to the feathers; under surface of body yellow, passing into white on the centre of the abdomen, the lower flanks light ashy brown; the throat and fore neck streaked with dark brown down the centres of the feathers ; the breast mottled with larger centres of dusky brown; under tail-coverts dusky brown, with dull white tips; under wing-coverts and axillaries white washed with yellow, the edge of the wing a little brighter yellow; quills brown below, whitish along the edge of the inner web. Total length 4*5 inches, culmen 0'65, wing 2-0, tail 1*7, tarsus 0-65. Hab. Fianarantsoa, Madagascar {Rev.D. Cowan). A better arrangement of the genus Bernieria and its allies appears to m e to be somewhat as follows:- «. Culmine tarsum scquante, vel etiam longiore. a'. Rostro brevi, conico, acuto, culmine haud foriiicato, tomiis integris Neomixis. I'. Rostro longiore, gracili, ad apicem clecurvato et evi-denter adunco Bern ieria. b. Tarso quam culmen longiore. c'. Vibrissis vix ullis, minimis ; fascia parva supra nares, difficile invenienda; tarso integro Mystacornis. d'. Vibrissis maximis, usque ad apicem rostri productis; tarsis integris Xanthomixis. t'. Vibrissis parvis, debilibus, haud ultra nares productis ; tarsis integris Crossleyia. f. Vibrissis parvis, debilibus, baud ultra nares productis; tarsis evidenter 4-scutatis Oxylabcs. The large series of Mascarene Timeliida? now possessed by the British Museum has enabled m e to push m y studies of these birds much further; and I find that, as in many other cases of Madagascar birds, the Timeliida? of the island not only form an isolated group, but are divisible into several genera, of which the comparative characters are given above. The following is a list of the species comprised under the above headings:- 1. Neomixis striatigula, Sharpe (vide supra). 2. Bernieria madagascariensis (Gm.). 3. Mystacornis crossleyi (Grandid.). 4. Xanthomixis zosterops (Sharpe). 5. Crossleyia xanthophrys (Sharpe). [The Museum now contains four specimens of this curious bird in addition to the original type (described, P.Z.S. 1875, p. 76, as Oxylabes xanthophnjs). The idea has been suggested to m e that it is the young bird of some other species ; but I think that this is not likely to prove correct, as one of the specimens before m e appears to be a nestling. It is duller-coloured than the adults, more of an olive-brown, the head scarcely darker, and the eyebrow almost im- |