22 Mr. W. E. Brooks un a new Species of Phylloscopus. 



gnats for grubs, easily enough accounted for by those who were 

 acquainted Dr. Scott^s left-handed writing. Had he, indeed, 

 intended gnats, he would much more likely have used the word 

 mosquitoes; but as we sat together in his veranda watching 

 the male Hoopoe digging up grubs, I am confident he intended, 

 and, indeed, wrote that word. 



It also breeds in holes of trees, as I observed at Hard war and 

 elsewhere. At Umballa I daily noticed its hunting for food, 

 which appeared to consist almost entirely of grubs. These it 

 hunted for on the ground, tapping with its bill continually till 

 it discovered the retreat of one (by what sense I cannot say, 

 whether of smell or sound), when it dug pertinaciously and 

 vigorously through the rather hard soil till it reached the desired 

 morsel, the beak being occasionally immersed to its base. I 

 fancied that the call of this species is very generally a treble hoot, 

 whilst that of the next one is more commonly a double call. 



255. Upupa nigripennis. 



It appears that this bird should stand as Upupa. ceylonensis 

 of Reichenbach. The white spot on the first primary is occa- 

 sionally present in this species, and- is even sometimes found on 

 one wing and not on the other; it is therefore not to be relied 

 on as a specific character. 



Blyth, in his commentary, accepted the Burmese race, which 

 I named loiigirostris, as a distinct one ; and jNIr. Sharpe, who has 

 lately been critically examining the Hoopoes, has come to the 

 same conclusion. Swinhoe, on the contrary, in his latest list 

 puts it as a synonym of U. ceylonensis. 



[To be continued.] 



II. — On a new Species of Phylloscopus. By W. E. Brooks, 



C.E., Etawah, India. 



While I was in Cashmere, in May and June of the present 

 year, 1871, I frequently saw a Phrjlloscopus which appeared to 

 to me at the time to be new, and procured four specimens. 

 My friend Col. Tytler was the first to separate it, four years 

 ago, from Phylloscopus viridanus, which bird it somewhat re- 

 sembles, and for which, at first sight, it might be easily mistaken 

 by merely superficial observers. 



