Letters, Announcements, ^c. 457 



never shot in this neighbourhood or at Cawnpore. This bird, 

 as Dr. Jerdon observes, has a "canary- yellow '' rump, or a 

 broad light greenish-yellow band across the lower part of the 

 back, which contrasts sharply with the general olive-green of 

 the back and upper surface. The termination of the olive of 

 the back is very abrupt, and not at all shaded into the yellow 

 of the rump, as is shown in the woodcut in YarrelFs ' British 

 Birds' (3rd ed. i. p. 380), where a figure of this species is given 

 to illustrate another one [R. superciliosus), which has been so 

 often confounded with it. The upper surface, from the head to 

 the rump, is darker olive in R. proregulus than in R. viridi- 

 pennis ; and in the former the axillaries and under wing-coverts 

 are very bright primrose-yellow, while the same parts in the 

 latter are emphatically pale — positive yellow occurring at 

 the ridge of the wings only. In R. proregulus, the outer 

 webs of the tail-feathers are of a much brighter yellowish- 

 green ; but the wings in the two birds are very much alike ; 

 so are the heads, except that, as I have already said, that 

 of R. proregulus is the darkest above. In this last the 

 bill is somewhat stronger than in the other species, and the 

 upper mandible and tip of the lower are very much darker in 

 colour, being quite of a blackish-brown ; its legs and feet are 

 also darker. The occipital streak in both is very conspicuous, 

 and of the same dull yellow colour ; but the superciliary streaks 

 are of a brighter and clearer yellow in most of my specimens of 

 R. viridipennis than in the two of R. proregulus which I have 

 examined. Dr. Jerdon (B. Ind. ii. p. 198) remarks of R. viri- 

 dipennis that it is readily distinguished from ^' R. chloronotus ," 

 i.e. R. proregulus {of. Ibis, 1867, p. 26), "by the rump being 

 concolorous with the back.'' This I have not found, as a rule, 

 to be the case, the rump being much lighter in colour, but 

 gradually shading into the darker hue of the back. In one 

 specimen that I have, the rump is of the same colour as the 

 back ; but all the others have light rumps, though not of a posi- 

 tive yellow. 



The places where Mr. Buck ^xocwredi R. proregulus are Rogee 

 and Chenee. He did not succeed in finding its nest. The 

 other species of Reguloides met with by him were R. occipitalis 



N. S. VOL. v. 2 I 



