124 Letters, Announcements, &;c. 



I find thatj in writing up my notes for my former papers 

 in regard to these species, I myself confused the dimensions 

 I had recorded on separate scraps for the two Malayan forms, 

 and gave for B. affinis what pertained to B.javanensis, and 

 argued on the same accordingly. 



For this I cry peccavi; but the main fact remains un- 

 changed, viz. that, as I have throughout contended, B. affinis 

 and B.javanensis, apud Blyth, are both quite distinct from 

 B. castaneus. 



Sirs, — In Part 2, vol. v. of ' Stray Feathers,' Mr. Hume 

 has published some criticisms on certain species of the Pha- 

 sianidse, regarding which I desire to make a few remarks. 



First (p. 118), referring to the supposed new species of 

 Polyplectron, called P. intermedius, Mr. Hume, having found 

 that it was the same as my P. germani, says that his descrip- 

 tion of the tail-feathers was so accurate that he is surprised 

 I had not informed him that the two birds were the same in 

 my letter to ' The Ibis' of June 1873. I could not give him 

 the information he desired in the way indicated, for the simple 

 reason that I never wrote any letter to ' The Ibis,' nor to any 

 other journal, about his Polyplectron; and the footnote at- 

 tached to Mr. BlanJonVs able review of ' Stray Feathers ' in 

 ' The Ibis ' of April 1873 had reference solely to some so- 

 called species of the late Mr. G. R. Gray ! 



Mr. Hume's next criticism (p. 138) is, that as I state the 

 male of the bird I call Euplocamus ignitus, when immature, 

 has the " flanks streaked with chestnut, and the central tail- 

 feathers brown," he wants to be informed (after describing a 

 well-known stage of plumage observed in the young male 

 E. ignitus) where the bird with " pale chestnut flanks, varied 

 with purplish black," mentioned by Sclater, is to come from, 

 or what stage of E. vieilloti it represents. I regret very much 

 to be obliged to say that I do not know. So far as I am con- 

 cerned, and the opinion I gave, the case stands as follows : — 

 What I meant by raying that the immature male of the bird 

 I call E. ignitus had the flanks "streaked with chestnut," was^ 



