Mr. Tristram on some Passerine Birds. 493 



to a great extent my own observations on the migration of birds 

 in Malta. By a singular coincidence, the number of species 

 therein included is the same as that at which my Malta list now 

 stands ; but it is, of course, made ujd of somewhat different 

 elements. It is scarcely to be doubted, however, that most of 

 those regular migrants which have occasionally been taken here, 

 do likewise visit Sardinia more or less frequently, though 

 they may not hitherto have been noticed there. The much 

 greater size of that island does not give it so preponderating an 

 advantage as would at first sight appear, over our little sea-girt 

 rock ; for while many rare and adventitious visitors may be 

 easily overlooked in the wilds and forests of Sardinia, here, on 

 the contrary, in this circumscribed spot they are brought, as it 

 were, into a focus ; and, as nearly everybody has a gun, and all 

 kinds of birds, from an Eagle to a Nightingale, are sent to the 

 market as " game/' comparatively few, even of the rarest, escape 

 notice. It is to be hoped that Dr. Salvadori's excellent cata- 

 logue will incite other close observers, like himself, to form 

 similar catalogues for other parts of the Mediterranean. I may, 

 however, remark that he gives, incidentally, a list of the rarities 

 in the collection of Signor Negri, at Genoa, including a spe- 

 cimen of Actiturus longicaudus taken there in October 1859, 

 making, with that recorded by me (Ibis, 1869, p. 247), the 

 seventh * occurrence of this American species in Europe. 



XXXVI IT. — Notes on some Old-lVorld species of Passerine 

 Birds. H. B. Tristram, M..\., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. 

 I HAVE lately received some very interesting series of Indian 

 Passerine birds from my friend and zealous ornithological col- 

 league, Mr. W. G. Brooks, C.E., which throw light on the geo 

 graphical distribution of several species. 



First 1 find that, as Mr. Blyth had previously noted (IbiSj 

 1867, p. 24), Phyllopneuste rama (Sykes) is apparently identical 

 with Sylvia caligata, Licht., and S. scita, Eversm., a bird which 

 evidently winters in India and breeds in Northern Asia; but 

 Mr. Blyth at the same time suggested that possibly Hypolais 



* [M. Gei'be (Oni. Eur. ii. p. 210) mentions an eigldli killed in Pi- 

 cardy. — Ed.] 



