Letters, Announcements, ^e. 437 



I may add that, out of twenty other specimeiis of A. cur- 

 rucaria obtained in Upper India in only one did the bill ex- 

 ceed "64, and in this case it measured only -67. Out of thirty- 

 one specimens, in only one does the bill exceed 'QT ', and in that 

 one it measures •7. This is a Mirzapoor specimen. I have 

 no Lower- Bengal specimens with which to compare; and it is 

 possible that there is a gradual increase in size as we go east- 

 wards. One point is worth noticing : Mr. Gould^s figure of 

 A. currucaria { = asiatica) truly represents the bill of the species 

 we meet with all over Upper India ; but Swainson's figure (Nat. 

 Libr. xiii. pi. 24) of A. mahrattensis, which has always been 

 identified with A. asiatica, represents a bill far more nearly 

 approaching that of my A. intermedia from Tipperah. 



It would be useful if ornithologists at home would compare 

 specimens in the various European museums, and see if the 

 two forms do grade into each other. As far as my collection 

 goes, any child would at once pick the six Tipperah specimens 

 out of the thirty Upper-Indian ones, on account of their much 

 larger bills, somewhat larger size, and larger and more orange 

 axillary tufts. 



Thalasseuscristatus is another bird which the collection con- 

 tains, and which I have never before seen from Tipperah. Be- 

 sides this, there is a lovely Leptocoma hasselti, numbers of 

 Chalcoparia phcenicotis, a pair of Xantholcema cynnotis (Blyth), 

 differing in the blue ear-coverts from X. trimaculata (J. E, 

 Gray), in which they are black, Turnix maculosus, Temm., Gallo- 

 phasis horsfieldi, the true Erythrosterna leucura {E. parva 

 being the only species that we obtain in Upper India), Har- 

 pactes liodgsoni, Merops quinticolor, Chrysocolaptes delesserti 

 (not C. sultaneus, which is confined to the Himalayas), 

 Gecinus viridanus, Zanclostomus tristis, Dicaum chrysorrhceum, 

 Lanius cristatus, Pericrocotus flammeus, Artamus fuscus, Al- 

 cippe pceocephala, Trichostoma ahbotti, and Mixornis rubrica- 

 pillus (both very common in Tipperah), Garrulax moniliger, 

 lole virescens, Brachypodius melanocephalus, Irena puella, more 

 specimens of my new Prinia humilis [supra, p. 144], Phyllo- 

 scopus fuscatus, Henicurus immaculatus, Calornis affinis, Munia 

 rubronigra and M. acuticauda, Mirafra assamica, Osmotreron 



