Letters, Announcements, &;c. 141 



legs dark yellow, with black claws ; bill horny ; cere yellow. 

 This specimen cannot have long left the nest, judging from the 

 but partial development of the tail. The other good things in his 

 collection were : — both sexes of Metoponia pusilla, Pallas ; Em- 

 beriza da vera (as distinguishable, according to Col. Tytler, from 

 that common about Simla), and agreeing with the European 

 type ; Emberiza fucata and E. pusilla, both sexes of each. May 

 not the Simla Emberiza be the E. cioides of Temminck men- 

 tioned by Dr. Jerdon (B. Ind, ii. p. 372) as " recorded by Adams 

 to be common in the lower ranges of the N.W. Himalayas " ? 

 Propasser rhodochrous, only a pair. I have observed several flocks 

 of these birds about Simla lately, probably on their autumnal 

 migration ; they are called " Tooti ^' by the natives ; but that 

 name more properly applies to the Carpodacus erythrinus of the 

 plains, which I do not now think ever occurs so high up as this. 

 I have endeavoured to snare specimens, but hitherto without 

 success. 



Chrysomitris spinoides. Dr. Stoliczka tells me that this 

 beautiful Siskin is found in great abundance all over the hills 

 of the intorior. I have been successful in capturing some 

 twenty here with the view of caging them to take to England, 

 where they will doubtless be much prized. I see that, in Dr. 

 Hoffmeister's ' Travels,^ published in 1848, they are mentioned 

 as the " Himalayan Canary. ^^ They are soon reconciled to 

 captivity, and are exceedingly lively and sprightly in all their 

 movements, resembling the Goldfinch in this respect. The 

 young bird, by the way, of which Dr. Stoliczka has specimens, 

 though none have yet turned up here, is somewhat dully 

 coloured, like the female, but has the breast longitudinally 

 striated with dark brown. (I write this from memory, and 

 subject to correction.) Dr. Stoliczka has also several specimens 

 of the female and young of that elegant little blue Flycatcher 

 Muscicapula super ciiiaris. Though the species is abundant 

 about Simla, and I had myself found a nest with young ones in 

 it in the hole of an old oak tree on the 10th of May, and at 

 that time seen the female, I had not previously had the oppor- 

 tunity of examining a specimen of that sex closely, owing to the 

 strictly enforced rule which prevails here preventing any 



