Letters, Announcements, l^c. 513 



cept a small spot of blackish chocolate-colour in front of the 

 eye ; the ruff is without any of those markings mentioned by 

 ]Mr. Diggles as occurring in his Strix walleri, which is pro- 

 bably identical with the present species {S. Candida). Our 

 specimen, moreover, has only a wash of buff in the form of a 

 band across the chest, but well defined, the remainder of the 

 under surface white-spotted, as in Mr. Gould^s figure. 



I believe this is the second or third authentic instance of 

 this species being found in Australia, and is interesting as 

 showing its great range of habitat. 



Yours truly, 



Edward P. Ramsay. 

 Curator. 

 Aust. Mus., May 10, 1875. 



Sir, — As there has been some doubt respecting the true 

 Sylvia rama, Sykes, some of the Indian naturalists believing 

 it to be the small-billed bird [Hypolais caligata), whereas 

 others consider that he described the large-billed form, it may 

 be of interest to inform your readers that I have carefully 

 examined the types, a male and a female from the Dukhun, 

 and that I have convinced myself that both undoubtedly 

 belong to the large-billed form. These two birds, wliicli are 

 now in the Indian Museum at South Kensington, measure 

 as follows : — 



Culmen. Wing. Tail. Tarsus, 



in. in. in. in. 



J 0-6 2-42 215 0-82 



$ 0-G 2-38 2-1 0-85 



I carefully compared them with examples from Etawah and 

 South-eastern Russia, and find that the bill is as wide at the 

 base as in any of the large-billed birds from India. It is 

 therefore satisfactory to find that the large-billed bird will 

 stand as Hypolais rama (Sykes), and the smaller one as Hy- 

 polais caligata (Eversm.). 



I may also take the present opportunity of recording an 

 undoubted occurrence of the Eastern Golden Plover, Chara- 

 di'ius fulviis, in Great Britain. In December last Mr. Bid- 



