Letters, Announcements , &;c. 471 



otherwise than in the Konkan. If Capt. Butler will do rae 

 the favour to read my introductory chapters, he will find that 

 I state my intention of dealing with the entire Konkan, de- 

 fining its limits as extending from the territory of Goa in the 

 south to the province of Gujarat in the north, thus embracing 

 all the districts of North and South Konkan, with the water- 

 shed of the Sahyadri range bounding them on the east. 

 These limits, recently modified by the transfer of North Ka- 

 nara to the Bombay Government (thus extending the Konkan 

 still further to the south), are also to be found in the ' Impe- 

 rial Gazetteer of India/ vol, v. p. 436. I see also that Mr. 

 Vidal (whose paper was before Capt. Butler) mentions Sa- 

 vantvadi as within the limits of the South Konkan {' Stray 

 Feathers,^ vol. ix. p. 3) . When, therefore, Capt. Butler 

 enumerates birds as occurring in the Sahyadri forests and 

 in the districts of Thana and Savantvadi, and then finds fault 

 with me for recording them as Konkan species, basing his 

 arguments moreover on the ground that the species recorded 

 by me have not also been met with in Ratnagiri, I can only 

 reply that he is wi'iting under a misconception of the scope 

 of my remarks, adding an expression of my regret if any 

 thing I have written, or omitted to write, has led him into 

 the error of supposing that my general List of Konkan species 

 is only a list of the species of one particular coUectorate of 

 the Konkan. 



Yours &c., 



J. Hayes Lloyd. 



Northrepps Hall, Norwich. 

 March 15, 1882. 



Sirs, — An instance of partial melanism has lately come 

 under my notice which, I think, is sufficiently remarkable to 

 be worth recording. 



A male of the common West-African Bishop-bird^ Pyro- 

 melana franciscana, which was purchased from a dealer 

 rather more than two years ago, was at that time in the 

 ordinary winter plumage. In the course of 1880 it acquired 

 its gorgeous breeding-dress, fully and completely; but when 



