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the upper plumage are tipped with white. The upper tail 
coverts are not barred with white, though the longest are yellow- 
ish white. There is scarcely a trace of obsolete barring; no 
white tip to the tail, though of some feathers, the abraded terminal 
one-eighth is slightly paler. There is not a trace of pale fawn, 
or of any bar, on either breast, abdomen, feathers of the leg, 
under wing coverts, or under tail coverts. There are no spots 
on the wings, and no pale tippings to the tertiaries. It is 
therefore not the adult Hastata of Jerdon, and still less the 
young. The beak is feebler, the tarsi slenderer, and longer 
than in Fulvescens, and this seems the only point in which 
it resembles Hastata. 'The following are the dimensions taken 
from the skin. Length, 24. Tail, 10. Wing, 18°75. Cere, 0°63. 
Bill, along curve from margin of cere to tip, 1°5 scant ; from 
gape, 2°25 ; width at gape, 1°81; height at margin of cere, 0°63. 
Tarsus, 3°63. Mid toe, 2; its claw, 1:06; hind toe, 1:09; its 
claw, 1°25 full. 
Mr. Blyth remarks, (Ibis, 1866) “ This species is well figured 
by Mr. Hodgson, as I pointed out to Mr. G. R. Gray, who 
does not include it in the second edition of his Catalogue of 
that gentleman’s collection. I have had many fresh specimens 
of all ages, and could always easily distinguish it from <A. 
Clanga. Though nearly of the same linear dimensions, it is 
considerably less robust, with smaller bill, and feet; and there 
is a recognizable difference in the plumage in all its phases; 
while in its habits, it partakes (in a prominent degree) of the 
nest-plundering propensities of Neopus Malaiensis.” 
I should like to see a good series of this, to me, somewhat 
doubtful species. As regards the lesser robustness, and smaller 
bill, and feet, these can scarcely be relied on, when we have to 
deal with a species so excessively variable in these respects, as 
is A. Nevia. Ido not for one moment presume to assert, that 
Hastata is not a good species, but I am sure, that the majority 
of the specimens that bear the title are Nevius, pur et simple. 
This was the case with several supposed Hastatas sent me from 
Lower Bengal. Moreover, the only specimen I could find* in 
* It must not be supposed, that this is any reflection on Mr. Blyth. 
This gentleman made the Calcutta Museum, and for some twenty years his 
talents shed a lustre on the Asiatic Society, which its then members did but 
little to merit. From the day he left Calcutta, the Museum has been dis- 
gracefully neglected ; numbers of specimens, as far as I could judge, in the 
confused state in which the whole collection was when I visited it in 1868, 
have had their tickets changed, or have disappeared altogether ; and it in no 
way follows, that the misnamed specimen that I saw, was one of Mr, Blyth’s 
