Letters, Announcements, ^c. 533 



was found at Asaloo, on the North Cachar Hills, by Major 

 Godwin Austen, and was also procured from the Garrow Hills 

 by Dr. J. Anderson. Later, Major Austen found it abundantly 

 about the huts of the Garrows. It breeds at Asaloo in April and 

 May, at heights of from 2500 to 4000 feet, constructing a very 

 small shallow nest, some 2*25 in. in diameter, with some feathery 

 seed agglutinated, as is so common in this family. The nest 

 is attached to the palm-leaf thatch of huts. The huts have a 

 double roof of palm-leaves ; and it is on the upper surface of the 

 lower layer of palm-leaves that the nest is made. 



Major Godwin-Austen has subsequently noticed this species 

 in the Journal of the Asiatic Society. My reason for thus pro- 

 minently calling attention to it is, that, after carefully examining 

 a specimen, it appears to me to be unquestionably Ci/pselus 

 infumatus, Sclater (P. Z. S. 1865, p. 602), hitherto only recorded 

 from Borneo. Specimens have been sent home I know ; and I 

 am anxious to learn as soon as possible whether this identifi- 

 cation of mine is correct or nof^. Yours, &c., 



Allan Hume. 



Calcutta, July 9, 1870. 



Sir,— In 'The Ibis' for April last {supra, p. 166) Mr. Blyth 

 suggests that the female specimen of Cyornis tickellia obtained 

 by me, in plumage precisely similar to that of the type in the 

 Calcutta Museum (presumed to be a male), is an exceptional 

 case. This, however, is not so ; for I have since obtained three 

 other examples in like plumage, the sex of each of which I 

 myself have ascertained by dissection, and all were females. 

 Unfortunately I have not been able to examine a male. 



In the same place Herr von Pelzeln's opinion as to the 

 identity of Erijihrosterna leucura and E. parva is disputed. Mr. 

 Blyth is unmistakably correct ; and the specimens in the 

 Museum here leave no room for doubt. But as the former, 1 

 believe, is, in India, confined to Bengal and the neighbourhood, 



* [Mr. Jerdon has been kind enough to inform us that he believes Mr. 

 Hume to be right in the opinion above expressed — and also that the 

 C. tectorum is certainly identical with Mr. Swinhoe's C. thms (supra 

 p. 90), as appears on a comparison of specimens. — Ed.] 



