122 Letters, Announcements, &^c. 



latter is softer and silkier ; and the chestnnt is brighter every- 

 where (but most conspicuously so on the throat and breast) 

 in the dullest B, castaneus than the brightest B.javanensis 

 or B. affinis. 



I say nothing now of the grey white -mottled birds from 

 Malacca, and the similar, though immediately distinguish- 

 able, ones from the Himalayas, I assert nothing as to the 

 validity of Blyth's B. affinis, nor as to the correct name that 

 this or B. javanensis apud Blyth should bear. 



I merely assert that in the Malayan peninsula occur two 

 forms, a larger and a smaller (both fully represented in my 

 museum), agreeing alike with the descriptions and the types 

 of B. javanensis and B. affinis, Blyth, and both absolutely and 

 unmistakably distinct, and distinguishable at a glance from 

 B. castaneus. 



Secondly, as to B. punctatus and B. moniliger. I have B. 

 moniUger both from the Travancore hills and from Ceylon per- 

 fectly identical. In no adult B. moniliger does the wing fall 

 short of 4*7. In B. punctatus, on the other hand, of which 

 several specimens have now, Mr. White informs me, been ob- 

 tained, the wing appears to be always under 5*5 (in the type it 

 is only 5*3) ; and though unquestionably there is a strong 

 family resemblance between the males of B. moniliger, as 

 sexed by Mr. Bourdillion (for I have no really reliable sexed 

 specimens except his) , and B. punctatus as described (I have 

 not yet seen the rufous form of this) , the difference between 

 the two birds in every dimension, and even in plumage, is such 

 that no one who compares them can ever confound the two. 



One more point remains to be noticed. When referring 

 to Mr. Hodgson^s bird, the type of Otothrix hodgsoni, I said 

 it was certainly an adult female by dissection. I said this on 

 the strength of Mr. Hodgson^s entry on the back of the plate 

 in his own hand : — 



" Darjeeling, towards Great Runjeet, about 4000 or 3000 

 feet. May 20, 1856. Female, young, and nest. Plumes 

 ivXV &c. &c. 



Here follows a full description of structure; and he adds, 

 ^' Young like mature, but duller hues ; nest nearly flat, a 



