ACANTHIPARUS NIVEOGULARIS, Gowia.
White-throated Tit.

Parus niveogularis, Gould MS., Moore in Proc. of Zool. Soc., June 27, 1854.

 

I wave searched in vain throughout the various ornithological works for the name and description of this
species of Tit, two specimens of which are in my own collection, and which are said to have been procured in
Northern India, but in what particular province I have not been able to ascertain; and I publish it thus early
in the “Birds of Asia” with the twofold view of eliciting information respecting its history, and of making
it known to science. It is remarkably different from every other member of the Paride I have seen, not
only in its colouring, but also in its structure: in the tints of its plumage and in its long tail, it offers an
alliance to the members of the genus Mecistura, but it differs from them remarkably in the much greater
length of its wings, and in its longer and more spine-like bill; these differences in structure are doubtless
accompanied by a corresponding variation in its habits and manners, with which, however, we are unfortu-
nately not acquainted. | |

Although opposed to any unnecessary increase in the number of genera, I find I cannot with propriety
associate this bird with any of the mmor groups into which the Tits have been subdivided. I am therefore
constrained to make it the type of a new genus, with the appellation of Aceanthiparus, a term which has been
suggested by the lengthened and pointed form of the bill. |

Forehead, centre of the crown, chin, sides of the neck and chest white ; lores and sides of the head black ;
hinder part of the crown and the nape brown ; ear-coverts, meet ce very tong; ele oe edged men a still
lighter hue ; upper surface brownish-grey ; wings brown ue margined with silvery-grey ; tail greyish-
brown, the three outer feathers narrowly margined with white, the white being gradually less exjensive on
the second and third than on the first ; under surface vinous-brown, separated from the white of the breast
by a narrow crescentic band of a darker hue ; Dill black ; feet reddish flesh-colour.

: 1 : nt 1s Yornus capitata, Wall.
The figures are of the natural size. The plant 1s the Cornus cantata,