330 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



XXIV. — Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



We have received the following letters, addressed " to the 

 Editors of ' The Ibis '" :— 



Sirs, — In the January number of this year's ' Ibis/ p. 7, 

 Mr. W. Jesse mentions incidentally his having seen, among 

 other birds on the Ganges near Fatehgarh, early in April 

 last, a flock of more than 40 Swans. I thought there must 

 be some mistake, and on mentioning the matter to one of 

 the Editors, a careful inspection of the MS. was made ; when, 

 as I am informed, it appeared by the use of a magnifier that 

 the word was *' Sarus " (Griis antigone), but without any 

 qualifying word " Crane.^^ 



On p. 9 Mr, Jesse says, " I have seen the 4th vol. of the 

 'Birds of India and Burma,' and notice that no native name 

 is given to the Terns." I am not acquainted with any work 

 bearing the title quoted ; but if, as is probable, Mr. Jesse is 

 referring to the 4th vol. of '' Birds " in the ' Fauna of British 

 India,' he must have overlooked the list of Indian Tern 

 names on p. 306. The first name there mentioned, " Tehari," 

 is sufficiently like " Titri," which, Mr. Jesse says, is used for 

 Terns by the boatmen of Oudh and the N.W. Provinces, to 

 make it not unlikely that the one is a local form of the other. 

 The word is printed "Tehari'^ in Jerdon's 'Birds,' "Tihari" 

 in Blyth's Catalogue, p. 290 ; one of these might be, a 

 misprint, but it is improbable that both are. "Pancheera," 

 the term quoted for the Skimmer [Rhynchops] by Mr. Jesse, 

 will be found in the ' Birds,' vol. iv. p. 327, and has been 

 noticed by many writers, including Blyth and Jerdon, and 

 also Reid in his "Birds of the Lucknow Division" ("' Stray 

 Feathers,' x. p. 86) ; the last-named writer, unfortunately, 

 does not give any native name for ordinary Terns. 



Yours &c., 



W. T. Blanford. 



Sirs, — On one of the first days of January of the year 1898 

 a specimen of the Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla) Avas 

 taken by a bird-catcher in the neighbourhood of the Hague 



