1872.] ON LITHOFALCO FIELDENI AND ERYTHEOSTERNA PARVA. 233 



Mr. Maingay. That gentleman noted one of his grey-breasted specimens as being a male. The 

 example marked male by Mr. Everett has also a grey breast; and the two marked as being 

 females are without the cinereous pectoral band. These independent observations coincide with 

 Temminck's statements (/. c). 



Hypot^nidia striata (Linn.), S. N. i. p. 2G2, " rhilippincs " (17GG), ex Brisson ; Walden, 

 Tr. Zool. Soc. viii. p. 95 *. 



" Marup, d , iris purple-red, legs leaden, bill red-brown." 

 In perfect plumage. Identical with Malaccan examples. 



p. 471. 



Letter on Lithofalco fieldeni and Erythrosterna parva, /ro?/i Viscount Walden, P.Z.S., to the 



Editok o/'The Ibis ' (October 1872). j^^^ ^^g^g 



SiK, — In the 'Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' no. v. May 1872, pp. 70, 71, 

 will be found a description of a Falconine bird, termed a " Merlin," from Thayet-Myo, by 

 Mr. A. O. Hume, and entitled by that gentleman Lithofa/co{l)Jieldeni, or Fielden's Merlin. 

 The species in question belongs to the remarkable genus Foiihiema', Kaup, founded for the 

 reception of the African Falco scmitorqnatus, Smith (Illustr. S.-Afr. Zool. ylves, pi. 1), and of 

 which IItj]iotriorclns castanotus, Heuglin (Ibis, 18G0, p. 407) is the male [ef. Sclater, Ibis, 18GI, 

 p. 34G, pi. 12). The strongly graduated rectrices, the double-notched maxillae, the powerful 

 legs, and the peculiar colouring of the plumage, differing also in the sexes, fully entitle the two 

 known species to generic distinction. The occurrence of this African generic form in Burma is 

 of the highest interest, more especially when considered together with the feet of Machoiramphus 

 being also represented in the Malay peninsula. I have little hesitation in identifying Mr. Hume's 

 uew IMerlin, notwithstanding the genus he has classed it under, as Polihierax insitjnis, mihi 

 (P. Z. S. part iii. 1871, p. G27t, ex Burma). 



In the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' part ii. no. 1, 1872, p. 7G, INIr. W. E. 

 Brooks informs us that "the males of Erijthrosterna parva, in the breeding-plumage, have the i^g 28'''> 

 red on the breast bordered on each side by a stripe of velvet-black. In the winter the black P- -172. 

 border disappears," &c. This somewhat startling fact would have, anyhow, inclined me to 

 conjecture that Mr. Brooks had met with another species ; but, fortunately, I have lately had an 

 opportunity of examining one of Mr. Brooks's specimens of his so-called E. ])arva in nuptial 

 plumage. It turned out to be Siphia [Menetica) hyperythra, Cabanis (Journ. fiir Orn. 18GG, 

 p. 391), ex Ceylon, where other examples have been since obtained by Mr. Holdsworth. It may 

 be added that the species seems to be only a winter resident in Ceylon, but that it never loses 

 the black pectoral stripes. Yours, &c., 



Walden. 



Chisleliurst, Aug. 27th, 1872. 



* lAnted, p. 104.— Eu.] t \_Anteu, p. 113.— Ed.] 



