Letters, Announcements, ^c. 289 



preserved witli carbolic acid. In these unskinned birds the dif- 

 ference is most apparent. 



Phylloscopus brevirostris is a good species, and I was mistaken 

 in thinking it was identical with P. 7-ufus*. The wings of the 

 latter are much shorter, and the bird is generally much greener 

 than the former; otherwise, they are wonderfully similar in 

 colour, and still more so in song. 1 often obtain specimens of 

 P. brevirostris vi'iih little or no yellow under the wings; but as a 

 rule the under wing-coverts are as yellow as those of the ChifF- 

 chaff. 



My remarks about Reguloides proregulus in the same letter 

 apply to R. viridipennis. I have since had two specimens of 

 the former from the Himalayas, and I find them to be quite 

 distinct from the bird I get commonly here, which is R. viridi- 

 pennis. Dr. Jerdon's descriptions of the two birds are correct ; 

 but the last-named generally has the rump lighter in colour 

 than the rest of the back, sometimes almost yellow ; but the 

 light olive of the back is shaded gradually into the lighter rump, 

 not abruptly defined as it is in R. proregulus, where the yellow 

 is bright and pure, and the line of demarcation between the 

 olive and that colour is level across the bird's back, the con- 

 trast, as I remarked in a former letter, being as strong and 

 decided as the white rump of a Martin or Wheatear. Some- 

 times the rump of R. viridipennis is concolorous with the back, 

 but most of my specimens have that part rather lighter. 



Capt. C. R. Cock, of Dhurmsala in the Himalayas, tells me 

 that Reguloides superciliosus is very common there at all seasons. 

 He sent me a specimen to prove that he had not mistaken the 

 species. The last time I heard from him he said the bird was 

 still there, though in diminished numbers. I think there is 

 every prospect of getting the eggs of this rare British bird next 

 spring, now that we know one of its summer resorts. I only 

 procured a single bird when I was in Kumaon in the spring of 

 1868. This species varies much in colour ; Mr. Hancock's Hart- 

 ley specimen (Ibis, 1867, p. 252) is, I understand, an unusually 

 brilliant one. He sent me a drawing of it ; and I have only one 

 specimen vvhich at all approaches it in vividness of colour. The 

 * [Cf. supra, p. 168.— Ed. J 



