Letters, Annomicements , ^c. 123 



soft mass of lichens, overlaid with a soft downy vegetable 

 substance, blended into a sort of ie\i." 



Now, when Mr. Hodgson enters the sex in his own hand, 

 with a full structural description, he has invariably ascer- 

 tained the sex by dissection. 



But, as every one knows, a single dissection cannot always 

 be relied on, injury by shot, disease, partial decomposition 

 of the specimen will at times mislead the most careful ob- 

 servers, and they will put down, without any doubts in their 

 own minds, a single specimen as niale or female, and then 

 find out later, when they come to deal with a series, that 

 they have somehow made a mistake. Such cases, however, 

 form the exception, and not the rule. 



Therefore when I first wrote I thought it probable that 

 Mr. Hodgson (although he had had only a single specimen 

 before him) was correct in the sex which he had recorded, 

 undoubtedly from dissection. But later, when I obtained 

 Mr. Bourdillion's evidence, and other collateral evidence which 

 I did not think it necessary to refer to, T began to entertain 

 the probability that Mr. Hodgson had been in some way de- 

 ceived. There is no uncertainty as to Mr. Hodgson's having 

 been of opinion that he had made out the bird to be a female 

 by dissection. The uncertainty is as to whether he was cor- 

 rect in that opinion, or whether, as will, at times, happen to 

 the most accurate observers, he was misled by deceptive ap- 

 pearances due to any of the causes above referred to. Fortu- 

 nately I shall be able to produce conclusive evidence on this 

 moot point, and shall now only draw attention to SchlegeFs 

 remark (J. f. O. 1856, p. 460) :—'' Bei alien indischen Po- 

 daryen sind die Mannchen grau, die Weibchen rostfarben.'' 



Yours truly, 



A. O. Hume. 



P.S. (26th October) . 



I have only just discovered that I myself am, in a mea- 

 sure, to blame for the error into which Lord Tweeddale has 

 (in my opinion) fallen, about Batrachostoinus castaneus, B. 

 affinis, and B.javanensis apud Blyth. 



