Letters, Announcements, 6^-c. 371 



three skins in our collection, omitting the total length (of little 

 value when taken from a skin) : — 



1. From Bahia wing 5, tail 2-4, bill 1-1, tarsi 1-7. 



2. „ „ „ 4-7, „ 2-4, „ 1-1, „ 1-7. 



3. „ Guatemala, „ 4-25, „ 2-4, „ II, „ 1-5. 



Comparing these measurements with those given above by 

 Mr. Lawrence, we must still doubt the possibility of differen- 

 tiating the Guatemalan bird from P. concolor on the ground 

 of size alone, though two of the Guatemalan birds have shorter 

 wings, and one of them a shorter bill. As regards colour, 

 Mr. Lawrence shows that variability exists in his Brazilian 

 specimens; the same appears in ours from Bahia; so that here 

 again we have no very trustworthy character. Apart from these 

 considerations, we think that from the fact of the same species 

 being found in Jamaica, Honduras, and Brazil there are a priori 

 grounds for hesitating to admit the existence of a second nearly 

 allied species in Guatemala of one of this wandering, widely- 

 ranging genus of birds. — Ed,] 



Mr. T. T. Cooper's recently published volume of Travels in 

 China* gives an interesting account of his meeting with 

 Bishop Chauveau, the original discoverer of so many rare 

 Phasianidse at the mission-station of Ta-lin-pin, in the moun- 

 tains of Western Szechuan. Here Mr. Cooper states that he 

 " secured himself against a scarcity of food" by stocking his 

 larder with "Pheasants of the Lady Amherst species [Thau- 

 malea amher sties) " ■\ . These birds, we may remark, have been 

 recently sold alive in England for £160 a pair ! 



The following extract is from a letter addressed to Mr. Sclater 

 by Dr. J. Anderson, F.Z.S., dated India Museum, Calcutta, 

 April 27tb, 1871. 



" I have got a splendid lot of Persian birds, but have not had 

 time to do more than glance at them. It is interesting to know 

 that some of the Indian species, such as Coracias indicus, Merops 



* Travels ofa Pioneer of Commerce, &c. Lomlon: Murray, 1871. 1vol. 

 t Op. cit. p. 182. 



