198 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



other. Quite recently, whilst sitting at the base of the granite 

 precipices which form the scarp of a well-known hill in Kattywar 

 (the Geeruar), and looking over the wooded spurs and valleys 

 lying at my feet, glowing with a hundred tints, over the plains 

 beyond, to the faint sea-line on the horizon, I was recalled from 

 speculations on the past, present, and future of the country 

 spread like a map before me, to considerations of an ornithological 

 nature, by suddenly becoming aware of a C. tickellia perched 

 within a few feet of me. A mass of dark foliage formed a fine 

 background for the grey-blue upper plumage and pale orange 

 breast, whilst a bunch of the yellow succulent Gam^uga pinnata 

 hung suspended above it, and lit up a picture which I gazed 

 upon with feelings that only desk-tied ornithologists can pro- 

 perly appreciate. 



As I watched my bright-eyed little visitor, a doubt arose in 

 my mind : — Are C. banyumas and C. tickeUiae different species or 

 simply male and female of the same ? 



Subsequent close observation has satisfied me that C tickellice 

 is only the female of C. banyumas. Throughout hot weather 1 

 have had daily opportunities of observing them. There is not 

 a tree under which I have rested tliat has not been the resort of 

 these pretty little birds ; and I have found, as an unvarying rule 

 at this season, that when an individual of one species is seen, 

 the other is sure to be found in its immediate neighbourhood. 

 Jerdon does not describe the female of C. tickellice, and states that 

 the female of C. banyumas is probably olive-brown ; but if this 

 were so, I cannot but think 1 should have met with it ; yet, not- 

 withstanding the number of blue birds I have observed, and that 

 I am constantly on the watch for the supposed female, it has not 

 yet fallen to my lot to see any but blue individuals of C. tickellice 

 and C. banyumas, the former of which I believe to be really the 



female of the latter. 



Yours, &c., 



J. Hayes Lloyd, 



Capt. Bombay Staff" Corps. 



p S_ — When writing the above I had not seen the October 

 number of ' The Ibis,^ containing Mr. Blanford's letter (Ibis, 

 1870, p. 533). That gentleman's e.\perieucc goes to corroborate 



