238 Mr. W. E. Brooks's Ornithological 



yellow, and the tertials are less lengthened " (' Birds of 

 India/ vol. iii. p. 641) . 



I agree with Dr. Jerdon as to the distinctness of the two. 

 I have taken eggs of both — of ^. curonica in Cashmere and 

 of ^. minuta in the plains of India. The eggs of the latter 

 are smaller. In the immature dress the two species contrast 

 strongly, and by the different size and colour of the legs I 

 could readily distinguish them. ^. minuta breeds pretty 

 far south; I took nests at Patna. But yE. curonica goes 

 north to breed, and I did not find it breeding at all in the 

 places that ^. minuta frequented ; I only got it in the 

 plains of India after the breeding-season was over, except 

 when I met it during the breeding-season in Cashmere. 



Good work has not been done in confounding these two 

 little Plovers. 



Falco atriceps, Ibis, 1882, p. 291. Two species are con- 

 founded under this term, one with a very red breast and 

 the other with a white one. Sharpe describes the latter, 

 ' Catalogue Birds B. M.' vol. i. pp. 378, 379, and Hume, in 

 ' Rough Notes,^ pp. 61, 62, describes the " chestnuts-breasted 

 one. If the white-breasted one be not F. barbarus (and I 

 do not think it is), it requires a name. It is far too small for 

 F. peregrinus, with which Mr. Sharpe confounds it. 



MiLvus GOViNDA, Sykcs. Ornithologists persist in applying 

 this term to the Lesser Indian Kite. Sykes's description, 

 "26 inches loug,''^ can only apply to M. melanotis, as the other 

 bird never reaches that size. As one of the types is an imma- 

 ture example of M. melanotis, and the description fits the same 

 species, Sykes^s term must be used for the large Kite, for it is 

 the prior one. M. melanotis should be reduced to a synonym. 

 The accident of a small Kite standing in the same case with 

 the large M. govinda does not give the lesser bird a title to 

 the original description. I contend that Sykes described a 

 large 26-inch Kite, and that it is his govinda, even though he 

 did not know that the lesser bird was a distinct species. Mr. 

 Sharpe, in the Catalogue, has misnamed the two species. 

 Messrs. Hume and Gurney contend for a third species of Kite, 



