Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 147 



obtaiued one specimen, the only one I saw during my stay 

 of nearly two weeks on these hills ; I was attracted to it by 

 its peculiar note, and I was within five or six yards of it in 

 dense bramble scrub before I saw it. I fortunately had my 

 air-cane in my hand, and secured it. (I may remark en 

 passant that a No. 1 air-cane made to carry shot is the finest 

 collecting-gun in existence ; with one tenth of an ounce of 

 No. 12 shot it will bring down a Thrush at 20 yards, and 

 at even 5 or 6 yards distance a small bird like a Wren 

 Warbler may be killed that will make a perfect specimen.) 

 I sent my collector on two occasions to the Anamullais 

 specially to try and collect more specimens of this bird ; but 

 he failed to get any, so the bird must be rare so far south 

 and west. Dr. Jerdon^s specimens were collected in the 

 Eastern Ghats near Nellore, a little to the north of 14° of 

 N. latitude ; my specimen was obtained about as far north of 

 10° of N. latitude, and considerably to the west — in fact 

 nearer to the Western than the Eastern Ghats. My speci- 

 men was obtained at 4020 feet elevation. 



Mr. Sharpe has catalogued one specimen of this Pycnonotus 

 (Cat. of B. Brit. Mus. vol. vi. p. 146) from '' Madras.'^ This 

 locality is as valuable as the locality '^India,^^ annexed to many 

 specimens. 



Mr. Sharpens description is evidently taken from a very 

 faded specimen, and hardly gives a fair idea of what the bird 

 is really like. 



In conclusion, I may say that I have complete lists of all 

 the birds I have collected and certainly identified from the 

 Anamullai Hills, Travancore, and the Nilgiri Hills, and if 

 you think these would be of interest I shall be glad to send 

 them to you -, but they are only lists, with occasionally a few 

 short remarks. 



Yours truly, 



W. Davison. 



P.S. — I have forgotten to mention that I found Phytto' 

 scopus magnirostris, Blyth, very common on the Travancore 

 Hills, quite the most common of the Phylloscopi, not except- 



