86 Letters, Announcements, 6fC. 



India. The bird breeds in October, and lays four e^^^, mea- 

 suring 0'6 inch in length, greenish blue in colour, with dark 

 red-brown blotches and irregular twisted lines at the larger end. 

 The birds are found throughout the year, like other Bnjmoecce, 

 haunting high grass, bushes, and grain-fields. I am indebted 

 to Mr. Fairbank for all these details. 



D. adamsi is distinguished from Z>. inornata chiefly by its 

 smaller size, much shorter tail, and rather more slender and 

 shorter bill. It is less rufous in colour ; and the claws are rather 

 smaller and straighter, the hind claw especially. 



This bird will, I suppose, be placed in Dn/moipus by the 

 believers in that genus. To quote Dr. Jerdon, B. Ind. ii. p. 178, 

 " The genus Drymoipus was instituted by Bonaparte for the 

 Asiatic Drymoicce. It differs from Prinia," &c. &c. " The 

 species have usually been classed under Drymoica ; but Bona- 

 parte has separated the Indian species from the African ones, 

 and, though unaware in what points they differ, I shall follow 

 Mr. Blyth's example and keep them distinct.^' Mr. Blyth, 

 however, has never assigned any better reason than Bonaparte, 

 who gave none at all. Blyth followed Bonaparte, and Jerdon 

 follows Blyth; and Gray, in the Hand-list of birds, follows 

 Jerdon, or, rather, improves upon him, in a very dubious manner, 

 by making Drymoipus a subgenus of Prinia. 



Now, when Neophron gingmianus is proved to be generically 

 distinct from N. percnopterus (even its specific difference is as 

 yet dubious) — when Gyps hengalensis, G. indicus, and G.fulvus 

 of India are conclusively shown to belong to a genus difi"erent 

 from that which includes G. hengalensis {v. africanus ?), G. ruep- 

 pelli, and G. fulvus of Africa — -when Circus sivainsoni, Elanus 

 melanopterus, Cypselus affinis, Oxylophus jacohinus, Ceryle rudis, 

 Lanius lahtora, Saxicola isabelUna, and a number of other birds 

 are proved to be distinct, generically as well as specifically, from 

 the African forms which go by the same names — when it is 

 clearly demonstrated that species like Micronisus badius, Aquila 

 fulvescens {v. fusca), Merops viridis, Centropus viridis, Dicrurus 

 macrocercus, Tchitrea affinis, Chatorhcea caudata, Oriolus kundoo, 

 0. m.elanocephalus, Pratincola leucura, Parus nuchalis, Zosterops 

 palpebrosus, &c. (I take a very few instances out of a host) are 



