428 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



at the lining and axillaries ; in this case I should certainly have passed the 

 bird over as a "Pintail," looking only at the under wing. 



My other specimen of G. ccdestis, shot here by me on October 21st, is 

 very different, having the wing-lining mostly white except just along the 

 edge of the wing. The median secondary coverts are in this case pure 

 white, the larger axillaries mostly white, the lower web only barred, the bars 

 much narrower than the interspaces, and becoming mere small blots towards 

 the end of the feather, the smaller axillaries are white only just mottled 

 with gray, and with a narrow dark shaft stripe near the tip, 



Mr. Blanford tells us that the more broadly barred specimens of G, ccehiUs 

 are, as a rule, European ones. 



Of course in the vast majority of birds the difference in the axillaries is 

 most conspicuous, and I mention my heavily barred bird not to throw doubt 

 on the value of the rule, but as an interesting and perhaps rather rare excep- 

 tion to it. 



I have noticed that the bars on the axillaries of the "Fantail " often have a 

 tendency to unite at the edges of the feather, sometimes forming a narrow 

 interrupted submarginal line. I have never observed this in the " Pintail." 



Another difference given by Mr. Blanford is not always very distinct ; 

 " the outer web of the first primary brown in G. stenura, white or whitish in 

 G. ccelestis." In both the Fantails mentioned above, this web was brownish 

 along the quill, and entirely dark gray for the last H inch or so ; in some 

 specimens of G. stenura I have seen it a very whitish-brown. 



While on the subject of snipe I see that Rostratula capensis is said in the 

 " Fauna of India " to be " rare in Tenasserim and the Malay Peninsula." It 

 is by no means rare in Perak or Selangor, the only two States in the Peninsula 

 in which I have yet collected. 



I send drawings of axillary feathers of a Pintail, and of the lightly and 

 heavily barred Fantails, and of the greater and median lower secondary 

 coverts of the darkly marked Fantail and the Pintail. 



A. L. BUTLER, F.Z.S. 

 Selangor, 2n(l'Dec., 1898. 



No. XVII.— ON AN IMMATURE SPECIMEN OF THE BLACK- 

 CAPPED PURPLE KINGFISHER {HALCYON PILEATA, BODD.) 



On November 4th, I shot a specimen of the Black-capped Purple King- 

 fisher, which, though obviously little more than a nestling, being very small 

 (bill at gape 2^ in., wing 4f in., tail 3 in.,) with the upper plumage dull in 

 colour and the bill short and dark, curiously enough shows hardly any traces 

 of immaturity on the lower plumage. 



The bird has a few narrow black strlce on the sides of the neck, but the 

 usual crescontic markings so characteristic of birds of the year are altogether 

 absent except for one or two very narrow edges to the feathers on the sides 



