458 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



and R. truchiloides, the latter being the most numerous. The 

 former has a stouter bill than the latter, and is generally paler 

 in colour, with indistinct wing-bands. The only nest found 

 was one of R. occipitalis, built not on the ground, but under 

 the rafter of a house and inside one of the rooms ! The bii'd had 

 young in the beginning of June. Many young birds were 

 observed, jirincipally of R. trochiloides. I was disappointed at 

 his not meeting with R. superciliosus ; but it is a species easily 

 overlooked until one is familiar with its call-note j and then it 

 can be procured in hundreds, though, active and restless as it 

 is, it hides very much in the thick foliage of large trees. It is 

 such an exceedingly common bird in the plains, that wherever 

 it does breed it must do so plentifully. Perhaps for this pur- 

 pose it goes more in the direction of Nepal. 



Mr. Buck brought several other birds, and took about a 

 dozen kinds of eggs, — those of Francolinus vulgaris, Emberiza 

 fucata, and E. cia among others. He has left with me a 

 Sparrow, shot high up on one of the hills, which I cannot find 

 in Dr. Jerdon's book. Carpodacus enjthrinus he found close 

 under the snows. I wish I could get away, some spring and 

 summer, to the same district ; what a collection I would make ! 



I am, &c., 



W. E. Brooks. 



South-African Museum, Cape Town, 

 July 27th, 1869. 



Sir,— In 'The Ibis' for 1866 (p. 209), J see a notice of 

 Herr von Pelzeln's remarks on the variation in the plumage of 

 certain birds, and I am induced to place on record an example 

 of melanism which has come on under my very eyes. 



I have had in my aviary for some time several Java Sparrows, 

 Padda oryzivora (Linn.), which have bred with me. One of 

 these birds, I believe the oldest, about a year or eighteen 

 months ago assumed, on moulting, a very decided dark tinge 

 over the whole plumage; but the white streaks totally disap- 

 peared, and the whole head became black. This bird is now 

 failing in health, and frequently drops from its perch, which it 

 can with difficulty regain. I believe that old age, and the weak- 



