on Dr. Jerdon's 'Birds of India.* 253 



Spilornis cheela does from S. bacha. As Dr. Jerdon remarks, the 

 Himalayan bird mustweigh fully double that from Southern India. 



65. BuLACA ocELLATA; Symium ocellatum. Lesson (Ibis, 

 1865, p. 29). 



Dr. Jerdon states that this bird is "not found in Lower 

 Bengal." I never obtained a Bengal specimen, but I once picked 

 up an uumistakeable feather of the species in a mango-tope some 

 thirty miles above Calcutta. I have never seen it from the east- 

 ward ; but B. sinensis, Latham [S trice orientalis, Shaw ; S. selo- 

 pufo, Horsf. ; S.pagodarum, Temm. PI. Col. 230), occurs in Siam, 

 the Tenasserim provinces, Malayan peninsula, and Nicobar 

 Islands. A specimen is noted by Mr. F. INIoore from the Hima- 

 laya; but I doubt this alleged habitat, and believe that it was 

 from one of the sub-Himalayan valleys. Capt. T. Hutton has 

 well remarked that an ordinary collector at one of the Hima- 

 layan sanatory stations (say Masuri) employs three or four 

 native shikaris, and he sends one or twoof them far into the interior 

 of the hills, and others down into the sub-Himalayan valley of 

 the Deyra-doon ; and their gatherings of birds, insects, and so forth 

 (from quite different fauna or assemblages of species) are alike 

 brought to England as a collection from the Himalaya! Thus 

 untravelled students are apt to be misled. 



69. ASCALAPHIA BENGALENSIS. 



Distinct from A. ascalaphus, though closely approximating to 

 that species. Dr. Jerdon omits to give the colouring of the 

 irides, which are of a redder and deeper flame-yellow than those 

 of a specimen of A. ascalaphus at present in the Zoological 

 Gardens. 



70. AsCALAPHIA COROMANDA. 



The late Prince Bonaparte associated this bird with Huhua 

 orientalis (erroneously placing H, pectoralis, Jerdon, as a synonym 

 of the latter), in the 'Revue de Zoologie^ for 1854 (p. 542). 

 Prof. Kaup,also, as strangely associates A. coromanda with Huhua 

 nipalensis and H. orientalis, as also the African Bubo (?) lacteus 

 (Temm.), in his division Uri'ua, while A. bengalensis and A. asca- 

 laphus are assigned by him to typical^wio ! A. benyalensis happens 



