356 Letters, Announcements, &;c. 



that he has recognized a bird in the Lucknow Musenm (which, 

 however, I have not yet seen) as Philomela major. 



I also sent to M. Verreaux a Falcon allied to Falco peregrina- 

 tor, which I wish provisionally to name Falco atriceps. The 

 head, nape, cheek-stripe, cheeks, and ear-coverts all form one 

 black patch. The rest of the upper surface pure slaty-blue, 

 barred, just as in an old Peregrine, with dusky slate-colour. 

 Beneath it is marked like F.peregrinator, and it has narrow bars 

 on the lower surface of the primaries. 



Also a new Ploceus, which I got in the terai, much larger than 

 any of our Indian species ; and though closely resembling P. 

 baya, it is nearly double the weight of that bird, with a bill fully 

 half as large again. Dr. Jerdon agrees with me that this is a 

 new species, at any rate to our Indian avifauna ; and I name it 

 provisionally Ploceus megarhynchus. 



I have numerous specimens of a species of Vulture not in- 

 cluded among the birds of India either by Dr. Jerdon or by Mr. 

 Blyth. It is a large bird, much bigger than Gyps hengalensis, 

 G. indicus, or Vultur calvus, and resembling Gyps fulvus, but of 

 a rich ruddy-bay colour with conspicuous narrow pale median 

 stripes to the feathers beneath, and a short stout bill, like G. 

 bengalensis. I call it Gyps fulvescens, the Bay-backed Vulture. 



I have also sent specimens to Paris of an Accipiter which 

 seems to me to be quite distinct from A. nisus. This I call 

 Accipiter melanoschistus — the very dark (almost black) head 

 and nape, the olive slate-colour of the rest of the upper surface, 

 the peculiar closeness of the markings on the lower parts, as well 

 as its somewhat greater size, serving to distinguish it from the 

 species just named, and a fortioi'i from A. gularis, A. brevipes, 

 A. virgatus, and others. It is not Lophospiza trivirgata, though 

 in the colour of the upper surface of some specimens there is a 

 close resemblance between them. My new bird has, of course, 

 no crest. 



Then I sent a Buzzard of a very deep smoky-brown, mingled 

 beneath with dull red, the tail having conspicuous and well- 

 defined greyish-white bars. I procured several specimens in the 

 Punjaub. It may be an African species ; but till identified as 

 such, I call it Buteo fuliginosus. 



