430 Miscellaneous. RARE BRITISH BIRDS. To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. Plymouth, October 16, 1856. Gentlemen, — During the late gales we have been visited by rather an unusual number of the Sterna arctica and S. hirundo. Specimens of each species have been shot in the neighbourhood. The Thalassidroma pelagica was captured alive on the 2nd of this month, in the passage of a house, Woocllane Terrace, by II. O. Bull-more, Esq. The bird was in excellent condition, fat and fleshy, but right wing was broken. I am, Gentlemen, yours truly, W. P. Cocks. Descriptions of two New Species of the Genus Orthotomus. By Frederic Moore, Assist. Mus. East India Company. At a Meeting held in the early part of the present year, I laid before the Zoological Society a monograph of this interesting genus, and since that time I have been favoured by my brother with a search through the birds contained in the Derby Museum, which has resulted in the discovery of two additional undescribed species. These I now proceed to characterize. Orthotomus derbianus, Moore. Forehead, crown and occiput dark ferruginous ; back, rump and sides of neck ash-colour ; ear-coverts, throat and breast pale ash, with the centre of the feathers whitish ; flanks ashy-white ; belly and vent dull white ; wings brown, broadly margined throughout with yellowish-green ; edge of shoulder pale brown ; under wing-coverts rufescent-white ; tail much graduated, ferruginous-brown above, dusky at base, paler beneath, and without discernible terminal spots or band ; thighs ferruginous ; upper mandible horn-colour, lower mandible and legs pale. Length, 5 1^ inches; of wing 2 inches; tail 2^ inches ; bill from frontal plumes f ths inch, to gape {-|ths inch, and tarsus -^ths of an inch. Hab. Philippines ? (H. Cuming). In Derby Museum, Liverpool. Remark. — May be distinguished from all the previously known species by its greater size, and in having the ear-coverts, throat and breast ash-colour, with the centres of the feathers whitish. Orthotomus maculicollis, Moore. Forehead ferruginous, becoming dull on crown ; feathers of the occiput greenish-brown, faintly edged with black ; nares, behind the eyes, a hne under, vdth the ear-coverts and sides of neck ferru-ginous-white, each feather being edged with black ; back and rump greenish; throat white; breast, belly and vent ferruginous-white; sides of breast black, and flanks light greenish ; wings brown, edged
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