ous that the Celtic worship of the celestial bodies may be traced in a general way to the ancient Mythos of Central Asia, whence the people themselves may have originally emanated, but from which they had been disconnected for ages anterior to the time of JULIUS CESAR, and à fortiori long before our Indo-Scythic coins were struck. The legend of Col. STACY's last coin, AOH, has given rise to a variety of conjectures :-the possessor supposes it a date,-but the only way in which it could be thus read, as Capt. CUNNINGHAM points out, is by supposing A to stand for Auкaßavтos, as on the Egyptian coins, ▲ OH anno 78. For ourselves we still maintain that, as the obverse legend is evidently a mere jumble of the title BACIAENC BACIAEON, there can be no hesitation in pronouncing AOH a similar jumble of HAIOC, rather than of any other of the known reverses, which, it will be remembered, do not appear until the Greek titles of the king give way to the indigenous appellation RAO. On receiving the Journal des Savans, we searched through M. RAOUL DE ROCHETTE's papers on the Honighberger and Ventura collections with avidity, to see how he would read these curious legends, and were at first mortified by finding that he dismissed them as "letters apparently resembling Greek"-then, as fit topics for "Indianistes-being out of the department of his own studies." In the number, for Mai 1836, however, we are happy to find that our own readings of Okro, nanaia, mao, &c. are confirmed by the learned German Professor of Gottingen, M. K. OrT. MÜLLER; to whom M. R. DE ROCHETTE awards the merit of reading a gold coin of Kanerkes in the French cabinet which he had left untouched;—" le revers, APAOKPO semble ne pouvoir s'expliquer, comme l'a proposé aussi tres ingénieusement M. K. OTT. MÜLLER, que par le mot Sanscrit OKPO combiné avec une seconde racine Sanskrite."-ED. IV.—On three new Genera or sub-Genera of long-legged Thrushes, with descriptions of their species. By B. H. HODGSON, Esq. MERULIDE, CRATEROPODINE; Aipunemia? Tesia, nobis ; Tee-see of the Nipalese. Bill shorter than the head, straight, and with the nares* perfectly Cincline. Wings very feeble, and quite round. Tail nearly obsolete. Rictus and capistrum smooth. Tarsi very high, slender, and quite smooth. Toes and nails meruline, slender, and compressed. 1st Species. Cyaniventer; blue-bellied, nobis. Above, medial grass green below, slaty blue: bill, horn color: legs, fleshy grey : iris, brown : 33 inches long by 5 wide: weight of an oz. : sexes alike. • In Aipunemia the covering of the nares is corneous: in Tesia, it is pure membrane. In the former, again, the tarsal scales are apparent; whilst in Tesia there is no trace of them. 2nd Species. Flaviventer; yellow-bellied, nobis. Above, grass green below, full yellow: mask covering the face and ears, bright chestnut bill, dusky above, fleshy below: legs, fleshy white: iris brown: size of the last : sexes alike. 3rd Species. Albiventer, nobis. Above, olive brown, dotted with buff: below, white, each plume being largely marked in the centre with dusky-brown: bill, dusky horn with a fleshy base: legs, brown: iris, brown 4 inches by 7. and oz. in weight: tarsi rather lower and stouter, and bil rather stouter than in the preceding species, which are the typical ones. 4th Species. Rufiventer, nobis. Above, olive brown, as in the last, but less dotted: below, rufous picked out with dusky, as in Albiventer legs, fleshy brown: bill dusky horn: iris, brown: size of the last, from which this species differs only (but permanently) by the ruddy ground color of the inferior surface. Remark. These little birds have a very strong muscular stomach, and feed on hard grass seeds and hard minute insects. They procure their food entirely on the ground, and live in woods exclusively. They are almost equally common in the central and lower hilly regions in the northern I have not found them. : CRATEROPODINE. Genus Larvivora, nobis. Bill equal to head, subcylindric, straight and slender; at base rather broader than high, and gradually narrowed; ridge considerably keeled upper mandible rather longer than the lower, and vaguely inclined and notched. : Rictal and nuchal hairs small and feeble. Wings, tail, and nares as in Turdus, but the two former somewhat less developed. Tarsi elevate, slender, nearly smooth: toes, all of them, compressed; lateral fores and hind sub-equal; exterior fore connected to the first joint. Nails, moderately arched and rather acute. 1st Species. L. Cyana; blue Larvivora, nobis. Above, full blue : below, bright rusty, paler and albescent towards the vent and under tail-coverts thighs, blue with white cross bars: cheeks, black : superciliary line, white: bill, dusky horn: legs, fleshy grey: iris, brown: 6 inches long by 94 wide, and 14 oz. in weight: sexes alike. 2nd Species. L. Brunnea; brown Larvivora, nobis. Above, brown: cheeks and sides, rusty: below, white: bill, dusky horn: legs, fleshy grey iris, brown: sexes alike: size of the last. Remark. These birds differ conspicuously from Tesia (SWAINSON'S Aipunemia ?) by stronger wings and tail, by their less cylindric and less entire bill, and by their open meruline nares. They have much of the aspect of the Sylviade, but are essentially terrestrial. Do they not constitute the oriental type of the American Drymophile? and do they not serve, in a remarkable manner, to connect the Meruline and the Crateropodinæ ? They are common to all the three regions of Nipál, and never quit the woods. They perch freely, but are usually on the ground. Their stomachs are feebler than in Tesia, and they do not take seeds or gravel. From the number of insect nests and larvæ found in their stomachs, I have called the genus Larvivora. CRATEROPODINE. Paludicola, nobis. Syimya of the Nipalese. Habitat central and lower regions. Character:-Bill scarcely longer than the head, stout, hard, entire, much higher than broad, sub-arcuated throughout, with both tips inclined downwards and obtuse. Tomiæ, beyond the nares, deeply locked, trenchant and scarpt internally. Nares, meruline, but nearly or wholly hid by setaceous plumuli. Rictus, smooth. Frontal and chin plumes rather rigid. Wings, feeble, rounded and bowed; primaries and tertiaries equal; fifth and sixth quills longest and sub-equal; the three first conspicuously gradated. Tail short, square, and bowed, not feeble. Tarsi very elevate, slender, nearly or quite smooth. Toes compressed and meruline; outer fore connected beyond the joint, hind sub-equal to inner fore, considerably less than the central fore, not depressed. Nails straightened and blunt; hind largest. Knees nude, tibiæ plumose. Remark. These birds never quit the forests, and usually adhere to those parts of them which abound in thick low brush-wood. They seldom perch save at night, and then only on low bushes. They feed principally in swamps and rills, upon the hard insects proper to such sites. Berries and seeds they seldom or never touch: and the sand occasionally met with in their stomachs is probably taken unintentionally. Their tongue and intestines resemble those of the Thrushes proper, with only a considerable increase in the length of the intestinal canal, which is sometimes 30 inches long. They fly so ill and are so stupid that I have seen them taken by a single man. They are much allied in manners and in structure to the Myotherine Pitta, but they appear to me, upon the whole, to belong to the Crateropodina*, though I apprehend that the details of that sub-family call for much further investigation on the part of its able institutor, who, I am persuaded, will discover that Cinclosoma and Pomatorhinus constitute large and independent groups or genera, distinguished by marked peculiarities both of habits and of structure. Species new. Paludicola Nipalensis, nobis. Body, wings and tail, superiorly dark obscure green, shaded with RICHARDSON'S North American birds, page 156. At page 488, Mr. SWAINSON is disposed to make Cinclosoma and Pomatorhinus sub-genera of Crateropus ! rufous brown quills and tail feathers more saturate: wing coverts with large buff drops at the end of each plume: remiges and rectrices, internally dusky: the 4 or 5 first quills of the wings paled at their bases on the inner web: lining of wings, mixed buff and dusky: forehead, face, neck, and body, below, brownish rusty, picked out on the under tail-coverts with blackish, and deepened on the thighs and sides into fulvous brown: nape and dorsal neck, dull azure or verditer blue chin frequently hoary: behind each ear a triangular black spot, united anteally by a gular band of the same hue: iris, brown: bill, dusky above, fleshy towards the commissure and inferior base : legs, ruddy flesh color: nails, horny white: size 9 to 10 inches by 15, and 5 to 6 oz. in weight. N. B. Sexes essentially alike, but the female paler; her gular band broken or interrupted; and her wing coverts frequently unspotted. The males, too, want these spots, except when they are in full plumage: the bright brownish rusty hue of their forehead cheeks, and body below, fades to a fulvous or dull fawn color in winter and the tail coverts are then immaculate. The lower belly and vent are paler than the breast, and frequently albescent. V.-Description of three new species of Woodpecker. HUMBOLDT asserts and SwAINSON repeats that there are no such forests, or native tenants of the forest, as those of the New World. But he who has tracked the wild elephant and bison through the colo-sal avenues of the Saul (Shorea Robusta), or the Ghoral and Jharal*, through those of the Deodár (Pinus Deodara) of India, may perhaps be permitted to doubt this. If the forests of America are 'lofty and interminable,' so are those of the sub-Himálayan mountains, from the skirts of the Gangetic plain to the very edge of the perennial snows. The zoological treasures of India may be less celebrated than those of America—carent quia vate sacro-but it is by no means probable that they are less worthy of celebration. SWAINSON's observation, above referred to, has reference more especially to the Woodpecker tribe; in respect to which he avers that the pre-eminently typical species are exclusively American. But this is a mis. take the sub-Himálayan forests afford several such species, one of which rather exceeds, than falls short of, the famous ivory bill (Picus principalis) of America. My collection of Nipalese Woodpeckers already embraces 16 species, which exhibit every known modification of form. I propose at present to describe the most powerful and the * Capra Quadrimammis, nobis, and antelope Goral.-HARDWICKE. feeblest of these, as well as one intermediate species; beginning with the largest and ending with the least. PICIANE. Genus Picus Auctorum, sub-genus Picus, SWAINSON. Species new. Picus Sultaneus, Royal Indian Woodpecker, nobis. This noble bird, facile princeps among the oriental Woodpeckers, and second to none in the world in size, strength, and typical attributes, is 15 inches long by 23 wide, with a weight of from 8 to 9 ounces. Form. Bill 2 inches long, a third longer than the head; at base higher than broad; the ridges sharp and straight; the sides strongly angulated; the tip perfectly wedged: extremely powerful and hard throughout: great lateral angle of the maxilla, extending centrally from the base three-fourths to the tip, where it is taken up by two smaller angles proceeding ascendantly to the cuneate point, and serving as ribs to fortify it*: lower mandible with the sides subangulated after the manner of the upper; its point similarly wedged, but with only one terminal rib instead of two. Nares, elliptic, lateral, closed superiorly by the ledge of the great lateral angle of the bill; vaguely membraned, and more or less free from the nuchal tuft of plumes: orbits, nude: head, large and broad with a pointed crest: neck, slender and uncrested: tarsi longer than the anteal, shorter than the posteal, outer toe: the latter toe conspicuously the longest the grasp extremely oblique, with the two hinder toes directed laterally outwards, and capable of being brought to the front. Talons very falcate, acute, and angulated beneath near the tips: wings, medial, reaching nearly to the centre of the tail: 5th quill longest 4th and 6th sub-equal to it: 1st, three inches, and 2nd, one inch less the 5th: primaries plus the tertiaries, one inch. Tail, extremely strong, moderately wedged: the six central feathers with the shafts bent inwards, and the webs very spinous; the laterals similar but less strong; the tips of the whole bifurcate. Color. Top of the head and lower back, carmine: upper back and wings, externally golden yellow band from the eyes round the forehead, ruddy brown: neck, from the eyes, laterally, black; anteally and posteally, white, with five black gular stripes on the anteal aspect breast black with large central drops of white, more or less brunescent: rest of the body below, and lining of the wings, white, transversely barred with black: rectrices and their upper coverts, pure In no other species have I noticed more than one sub-terminal lateral angle; nor is there any other, with the power this possesses, of directing the whole of the toes to the front. The better to shew the pre-eminence of this species, I will add to my paper the description of another belonging to the same sub-genus. See Pyrrhotis in the sequel. P |