BRACHY'PTERYX, a genus of Birds approaching to Saricoia, thus defined by Dr. Horsfield : Bill with the culmen carinated between the nostrils, the sides being flattened, and rounded towards the apex, with the sides convex ; edges subinflected ; wings very short and obtuse : tail moderate and rounded; feet elongated and weak ; the tarsi slender ; the toes very slender, and the claws very much compressed; hallux or hind toe comparatively large.
Brachyptcryx montane, Horsfield. The species on which the genus is founded has the following characters : —Weight of the male five, and of the female six drachms. In the male, the head, neck, and breast have a dark indigo-blue tint, inclining to black, with a grayish reflection on the surface, variegated with lighter and darker shades; on the throat and the lower part of the neck this colour passes into gray ; on the forehead it is more intense, inclining to black. Above the eyes is an oblong white spot. The back, the wings above the shoulders, the coverts of the tail, the vent, hypochondrix, and thighs are deep chestnut-brown, with a ferruginous reflection. The wings underneath, and the tail at the extremity and underneath, are pure blackiah-brown ; the shafts of the quill- and tail-feathers are black and shining. The inner vanes of the quills and the tail-feathers generally have a very deep brown colour. The exterior vanes of the tail-feathers are slightly tinted with the ferruginous lustre of the upper parts. The lower parts of the breast and abdomen are whitish. The plumes on the posterior portion of the body are very thickly disposed; the vanes consist of long, delicate, silky, pendulous lamina, or filaments, forming a lax covering about the lower parts of the abdomen, the hypochondrice, and the root of the tail. The irides have a dark hue. The bill is black, and the tarsi are deep brown. The tint of the claws is somewhat lighter.
In the female, the dark blue tint, which in the male covers the head and neck, extends over the body generally, and also marks the exterior vanes of the quills. The interior vanes of the latter and the tail-feathera are dark brown, inclining to black. The throat and neck underneath have a dark grayish tint. The abdomen is grayish-white. Over the eyes it has, like the male, a white spot,.and the bill and tarsi also agree with that. The covering of the abdomen, vent, and thighs is likewise long, delicate, silky, and pendulous.
Dr. Horsfield met with this species in one situation only, at an elevation of about 7000 feet above the level of the sea. He thinks it probable that it may he found on all the peaks of Java, which are covered with thick forests, accommodated to its peculiar habits. The recurrence, he observes, of several quadrupeds and birds, at a certain elevation, is as regular in that island as that of many plants and insect& Although local in its residence, Dr. Bonifield found the bird very numerous on Mount Prahu, which, he says, in the luxu• rianee of its vegetation and gloomy thickets, is probably not surpassed or Sloth; hut later zoologists have separated them, on account of certain anomalies in their organic structure. It must however be
confessed that the two genera of Sloths are closely approximated to one another in many essential details both of structure and economy ; and this fact is the more remarkable and interesting einco the modifi cations upon which their generic distinction has been founded arc greater, and, as wo might naturally presume, more influential, than those which frequently characterise two different families.
The order Edenoata comprises a number of genera, perhaps the most singular and anomalous among Mammals, differing widely from all other quadrupeds, hut unfortunately possessing no few natural affinities or relations of resemblance among themselves, that the order Edentate is sometimes regarded as the most arbitrary and arti ficial of all the primary groups into which Cuvier and Geoffrey have divided the Jfammalia. The fathily Tardigrada, or Sloths, are more especially deserving of attention, as well from the singularity of their physical structure, and the mistakes which have hitherto prevailed among naturalists concerning tho habits and manners of theso singular animals, as on account of the relation which they present in their osteological details to the Mcgatherium, the most curious and enema loui of extinct animals. This family is distinguished from the other Edenlatm.by a abort round head, and the presence both of molar and canine teeth, the incisors alone being deficient ; but above all by the great length and singular structure of their arms, which, adapting them to a mode of progression altogether peculiar to themselves, and consequently disqualifying them for the exercise of that species of locomotion common to ordinary quadrupeds, have caused them to be considered as the most miserable and unfortunate of beings, imperfect monsters of creation, equally remarkable for their disgusting appear ance and helpless condition.
in any portion of the globe. In his daily excursions he uniformly observed and occasionally surprised it in its short sallies among the openings of the forest. It was chiefly found on the lowest branches of trees or on the ground. As the shortness of its wings incapacitates it for elevated or distant flights, its motions are low, short, and made with great exertion. It lives in the thickest coverts, feeding on the hu•vte of insects, worms, &c., and there it forms its nest on the ground. "It utters," rays Dr. llorsfield, "almost without interruption, a varied 'long. Its common note is a quickly reiterated babbling, resembling that of the Curruca garrula of Brinson, and other birds of this family: it also has a protracted plaintive note, but it sometimes rises to higher and melodious warblings, which, in the general silence of these elevated regions, afford an inexpressible sensation of delight to the mind of the solitary traveller." This bird is the Ketek of the Javanese and Mountaineer Warbler of Latham.
(Horsfield, Zoological Researches in Jaya and the neighbouring Iolanda, and Transactions of the Linneean Society, vol. xiii.)