64 Ornithological Notes from Constantinople. 



line on the Asiatic side of the liospliorus^ between Haider 

 Pacha and Ismidt. Mr. William Pearse, of Haskeui, who is 

 engaged in obtaining specimens to supplement the series, told 

 us that he received the skin of the bird when qnite fresh, and 

 that it was shot in company with a flock of the common 

 Roller {C. garrula). The Indian Holler is already known to 

 occur on the Persian Gulf. Sclater has examined specimens 

 obtained at Bunder Abbas by Doria in 1862, now in the Civic 

 Museum of Genoa; and Mr. Blanford, we believe, likewise met 

 with it in Southern Persia; so that its occasional occurrence 

 in Asia ]\Iinor is not very surprising. Halcyon smyrnensis has, 

 we know, a somewhat similar range. 



RuTiciLLA MESOLEUCA (Hcmpr. & Ehr.) (?). 



The collection contains a stuffed specimen of a Redstart 

 closely resembling the ordinary R. phcenicuras, but having 

 less white on tlie forehead, and a conspicuous Avhite wing- 

 patch, formed by a narrow external white edging to the inner 

 primaries and the secondaries. It would seem to belong to the 

 form called mesoleuca by Hemprich and Ehrenberg, of which 

 Messrs. Blanford and Dresser have given us an account in 

 their excellent article on Hemprich and Ehrcuberg's types 

 (Ibis, 1874, p. 343). Mr. Pearse informs us that the bird 

 was captured by bird-lime near Haskeui, in the autumn of 

 1874. 



A skin of the same form, or nearly so, obtained by Dr. 

 Kriiper near Smyrna, is in Taylor's collection. "Whether this 

 bird is faii'ly separable from R. jjhoeniciirus is perhaps doubt- 

 ful ; but whatever view may be taken of it, the form certainly 

 occurs occasionally within European limits. 



Terekta cinerea (Guld.) ; Degland & Gerbe, Orn. Eur. ii. 

 p. 171. 



Although this Wader is a well-known inhabitant of Eastern 

 Europe, we are not aware that its occuiTence in Turkey has 

 been recorded. Mr William Pearse, of Haskeui, shot a pair 

 of these birds near the Sweet W'aters last summer, which are 

 now in the Bebek collection. The species would appear to 



