392 Letters, Announcements, i^c. 



was obtained from Mr. H. Nevill; so were some of my spe- 

 cimens, and another from Malabar is in the British Museum. 

 Yet Mr. Hume remarks, " I do not think that the learned 

 editor in question should have so positively asserted what he 

 had no means of verifying " (Str. F. 1876, p. 377). If Mr. 

 Bourdillon's Travancore examples specifically differ from the 

 Ceylon B. moniliger, they, not the Ceylon bird, require a new 

 title ; but the male, as described by Mr. Hume, but slightly 

 differs from a Ceylon male of B. moniliger in my collection. 

 I trust. Sir, whether my argument appears to you convincing 

 or not, that it will enable my fellow Members of the B. O. U., 

 and whose favourable opinion I prize, to judge of the scien- 

 tific value of the criticism contained in the following reckless 

 passage Mr. Hume has ventured to print (/. c.) : — " It does 

 seem a pity that such very erroneous assertions [that B. 

 castaneus = B. affinis, and that B. punctatus = B. moniliger] 

 " should be put forward so authoritatively without the re- 

 motest apparent grounds.'" Is it uncharitable to suggest that 

 "grounds" which may not be apparent to Mr. Hume may 

 yet be self-evident to any ornithologist who takes the trouble 

 to acquire the rudiments of the subject on which he professes 

 to instruct others ? 



I remain yours, 

 Chisleluirst, May 16, 1877. Tweeddale. 



P.S. Mr. Blanford (/. c.) mentions a specimen of an adult 

 {B. sp.) in Mr. Hume's possession, ex Sikim, "closely agreeing 

 in general coloration with the figure oiOtothrix hodgsoni,^'' as 

 being " marked female." Is this the same example alluded 

 to by Mr. Hume {op. cit. ii. p. 349), the only one of his four 

 " noted as a female, with a note of interrogation," by its col- 

 lector, Mr. W. Mason ? If it is not, we have some evidence 

 of dimorphism in B. affinis. If it be the same individual 

 the note of interrogation must have escaped Mr. Blanford's 

 attention.; — T. 



Sirs, — Mr. W. R. S. Ralston has kindly called my atten- 

 tion to an account of the Petchora expedition of our friends 

 Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie Brown which lately appeared in 

 the correspondence of the ' Novoc Vremya ' or ' New Times ' 



