162 Mr, BlytVs Commentary 



p. 497), and the Javan specimen referred to is decidedly identical 

 with the latter. Had Mr. Wallace's specimen been Indian, I 

 should not have hesitated to regard it as a small male of 

 T. tanki, as I formerly long considered a unique specimen of 

 T. maculosa from Arakan to be an unusually large female of 

 T. tanki. It would now seem that T. tanki is peculiar to the 

 special Indian province of the Indian region, T. maculosa to 

 the Indo-Chinese province (with China), and T. rufescens to the 

 Malayan province. T. maculosa is figured by Vieillot (Gal. des 

 Ois. pi. 217) with the rufous extending round the front of the 

 neck, evidently a fine female — which compare with the figure of 

 T. tanki by Gray and Mitchell. Mr. Wallace has noted the 

 legs of T. rufescens to be "pale yellow;" whereas those of 

 T. tanki could scarcely be described as pale yellow ; they are 

 tolerably deep and bright garaboge-yellow, while those of T. 

 dussumiei'i are pinkish-white or flesh-coloured, and those of T. 

 pugnax are plumbeous. T. pugnax and T. tanki are more or 

 less common in most parts of India, the latter being rarer south- 

 ward ; but T. dussumieri is so rare in Lower Bengal that I only 

 obtained one specimen of it a few weeks before my departure, 

 which was taken in a garden in Calcutta. Mr. Wallace has a 

 very distinct new Turnip from Macassar, with a remarkably stout 

 bill, as yet undescribed. 



836. EUPODOTIS EDWARDSI. 



The Chinese Bustard referred to (iii. p. 611) was identified, 

 from the sternum only, by Mr. A. Newton with the European 

 and Asiatic Otis tarda, as I am informed by him. 



837. HouBARAMACQUEENi (Gray); Journal fiir Ornithologie, 

 1856, taf. iii. 



838. Sypheotides bengalensis. 



A number of these birds, turned loose into the garden of my 

 late friend R. W. G. Frith, Esq., having their wings clipped, 

 would eagerly pluck at and swallow the large double flowers of 

 the Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (the " shoe-flower " of Anglo-Indians) . 

 A fine male has lived since 1857 in the Zoological Gardens, 

 Regent's Park, and has regularly undergone its seasonal changes, 

 as I have likewise observed of others living in captivity. An egg 

 of the species is figured (Coatrib. Orn. pi. 47). 



