1874.] DE. FmSCH'S 'DIE PAPAGEIEN.' 283 



so on more suo. From this disingenuous passage the trusting reader would gather that Dr. Finsch 

 had stated that P. cohimboides occun-ed in the Himalayas. He has done nothing of the kind. 

 He has merely, as is his habit all through the work, and as most accurate writers do, identified 

 the specimen from which he made his diagnosis ; in this fashion — " Himalaya (Leidener Museum). 

 d ad. Ivopf, Eiicken uud, etc. ; ? ad. (Himalaya) im Museum Heine, ganz wie das d gefarbt " 

 (t. c. pp. 74, 75). When we turn to the passage giving the full geographical distribution we 

 find the complete range stated with a sufficient accuracy in these words, " an der Malabarkiiste, Ibis, 1874, 

 bei Madras, im Decan, bei zum 17° nordlich, selten in den Neilgherries, bis auf Hohen von 5000' " ^' 

 (t. c. p. 76). The Himalayas are not included. But even here, notwithstanding Mr. Hume 

 magniloquently has said that he has "not taken in hand to catalogue Dr. Finsch's errors" (t. c. 

 p. 18), the little slip of the pen " bei Madras " is not overlooked. For, big as the beam is which 

 intercepts the reviewer's critical vision, he is here able to espy this small mote in his brother 

 naturalist's eye, and it is seized upon with all the charitable avidity compatible with " friendly 

 relations." " Finsch tells us that this species is found in Madras ; if he means the town or 

 district of Madras (Chingleput) then he is certainly in error — if he means the presidency of 

 Madras, then since the places he enumerates, the Malabar coast and the Nilghiris are both in this 

 Presidency, it is, to say the least, surplusage, calculated to mislead ;" and so on (t. c. p. 23). To 

 an old Madrasee, one who has shot along with Jerdon many a specimen " in the flesh," to say 

 nothing of Snipe in the paddy fields of the Chingleput district, this phrase " district of Madras 

 (Chingleput) " seems strange thunder. Madras was, and I believe is, a district by itself, with an 

 area of some 30 square miles — bounded on the north by the Nellore district, to the west by the 

 Arcot districts, and on the south by the Chingleput district, from which it is separated by the 

 Adyar river. But this may be all changed, and the Madras and Chingleput districts may have 

 been amalgamated *. If so, this local and parochial erudition in a high Bengal official is to be 

 commended; but can it be reasonably expected from a European naturalist"? 



Of this species it may be also asserted that at the time Dr. Finsch wrote there was no 

 published concurrent and convincing evidence on the moot point, the colouring of the bills in 

 the two sexes. In the absence of adequate conclusive proof. Dr. Finsch maintained (Z. c), 

 although with perfect deference to Dr. Jerdon, that the bills in the two sexes were coloured Ibis, 1874, 

 alike. I have frequently seen, and have shot, this species, and am inclined to think now, as I ^' "^"^' 

 did then, that Jerdon's view is correct. Yet Sykes, an Indian ornithologist be it remembered, 

 one who did not form his opinion from " half a dozen wrongly sexed skins in a Museum," but 

 from his own observations in the jungle, regarded the black-billed bird as specifically distinct 

 from P. columboidcs, and bestowed on it a distinctive title, P. melanorhynchus. " Found in the 

 ghauts. Sexes alike. This bird has the aspects of Pal. columhoides, but difiers in the black 

 bill," etc. (Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 97). No other writer knew the species "in the flesh" previous 

 to 1868. Mr. Blyth only knew it from a few " skins in a museum," and Dr. Finsch seems, in 

 spite of Mr. Hume's remark, to make a fair observation when saying " Blyth is uncertain and 

 says of the black-billed birds ' female or young ' " [l. c). But surely Dr. Finsch, even if shown 



* As a matter of fact I am informed in epist. by Sir Walter Elliot, the weU-known and eminent Indian naturalist, 

 that " lladras is certainly not included in Chingleput, but is a district by itself." 



