388 Letters, Announcements, &;c. 



frontier of British territory and the desert or semidcsert 

 plains at their base. I have been able to add but very few 

 forms to Mr. Hume's list of the Sind avifauna^ published in 

 'Stray Feathei-s' (vol. i. pp. 91-289) ; but one specimen, A\'hich 

 was shot by a native collector, and brought to me in the flesh, 

 is, I think, a male of Hypocolius ampelinus, Hartlaub, figured 

 and described by Heuglin in 'The Ibis' for 1868 (p. 181, PI. Y.) . 

 So far as I am aware, this species has hitherto only been 

 found in Abyssinia, where it can scarcely be common, as 

 neither j\Ir. Jesse nor I obtained it ; and it is a very interest- 

 ing addition to the birds of Western India. 



My specimen is, above, of a purer grey than those described 

 by Heuglin ; the crown of the head is of the same colour as 

 the back towards the nape, and has an isabelline tinge only 

 towards the forehead, even there being very much darker than 

 the chin and throat are. But these differences are very pos- 

 sibly due to the state of the plumage, and I greatly doubt if 

 they are of specific value. The first long primary is grey 

 towards the tip, not white ; and the second has a large grey 

 spot on the terminal portion of the inner web. This is not 

 mentioned by Heuglin, who describes all the primaries as 

 having white tips. 



I had not the good fortune to see the bird alive ; but the 

 man who shot it told me that he found it alone on a stony 

 and barren hill-side. The stomach was very muscular; and 

 the contents qonsisted entirely of Zizyphus fruits. These 

 facts, and the complete absence of vibrissse at the base of the 

 bill, suffice, I think, to show that Heuglin's view of the affini- 

 ties of this bird are untenable. He considers that it belongs 

 to the Campephagina. Mr. Gray, in his ' Hand-list, even 

 placed it in the Laniida, close to Lanius itself. Bonaparte, 

 the original describer of the genus, assigned it to the Ampe- 

 lidce ; and this position appears more probable than that 

 adopted by Heuglin and Gray, though I cannot help feeling 

 some doubts as to its correctness. 



Yours &c., 



W. T. Blanford. 

 Calcutta, May 14th, 1875. 



