■34 Mr. H. E. Strickland's Notes on Mr. BlyWs 



made it. It is true that in the first instance it would have been pre- 

 ferable to have given classical instead of barbarous names to these ge- 

 nera, but the latter having been first published to the world, they must, 

 according to the principles of zoological nomenclature now generally- 

 adopted by European naturalists, be permanently retained, and the 

 improved classical names must sink into synonyms. (See Report of 

 British Association on Zoological Nomenclature, Rule 1 , and Recom- 

 mendation A.) I trust therefore that the zoologists of India will, for 

 the sake of uniformity with their European brethren, employ \h.G first 

 set of names proposed by Mr. Hodgson in preference to the second. 

 25. Vultur leuconotus; this I presume to be the same as V. indi- 

 cus of Temminck (PI. Col. 26) and Col. Sykes. Two other Indian 

 vultures are recorded, viz. 1. V. hengalensis of Gmelin, Latham and 

 Sykes, and 2. V. indicus, Lath, (nee Tem. ?), figured in Sonnerat's 

 Voy. Ind. vol. ii. pi. 105, and said by Temminck to be the young of 

 V. kolbi. Does Mr. Blyth recognise these two as distinct from V, 

 leuconotus ? 



32. Is the Upupa minor of India identical with that from the Cape ? 

 The latter exhibits two states of plumage, viz. 1 . with back, belly and 

 vent deep rufous, and two-thirds of the secondaries from the base 

 pure white ; 2. back and belly dusky rufous, vent white, and the 

 white portion of the secondaries divided across by two black bars. 

 This last is said by Lichtenstein and Wagler to be the young of the 

 other. Do the Indian specimens present both these states of plu- 

 mage ? 



33. Merops indicus should be called M. viridis, Lin. 



38. The species described as allied to Halcyon smyrnensis is the 

 H.gularis (Kuhl) (H.ruficollis, Sw. A. melanoptera, Tem,) described 

 by Brisson as inhabiting Madagascar and the Gambia, but both these 

 habitats are probably erroneous, as specimens were brought by Mr. 

 Cuming from the Philippine Islands. 



39. The " Ceryle rudis*' of India is I believe distinct from the true 

 rudis of Europe and Africa, to which Ispida bicincta, Sw., is now re- 

 ferred. (See Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. vi. p. 418, vol. xii. p. 220, where 

 I have proposed the name C. varia for the Indian species.) 



42. Bucco viridis of Gmelin (" 6J inches long") cannot be the 



B. caniceps, Frankl. (" 10 inches long.") 



43. Is not Picus strictus the same as P. goensis, Gm. (P.peralai- 

 mus, Wagl.) and P. guttacristatus, Tickell } 



44. Is not Picus hengalensis the same as P. aurantius, Lin. } 



52. For Cuculus niger, Latham, read C niger, Lin. (C orientalis, 

 y. Lath.) The bird so designated by Mr. Blyth (which is the C. 

 tenuirostris, Gray, and C.fiavus, Jerdon,) cannot however be the true 



C. niger of Linnaeus, which is described as entirely glossy black, the 

 beak orange, with its margin undulated. If it were not that the 

 latter species is said to be only 9 inches long, I should suppose that 

 it referred to Eudynamys orientalis. 



53. Oxylophus edolius shouXdhedeiiomm^ited O.^erra^M* (Sparrm.). 

 55. There is so much confusion among the oriental species of 



Centropus, that Mr. Blyth would do a service by sending a descrip- 



