576 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



distinct species, it is certainly a good race. The grey is very 

 much paler, almost white. 



I shall now make one or two remarks upon some passages 

 in vol. V. of the British Museum Catalogue. 



Phylloscopus viridipennis {op. cit. p. 53). — Blyth's types, 

 which I most carefully examined and reexamined, were small 

 examples of Phylloscopus trochiloides. In his description of 

 the species Blyth does not mention any white on the tail, and 

 he was much too accurate a man to have overlooked this. This 

 white-tailed species should stand as P. presbytis, Miiller, for 

 certainly the synonym viridipennis cannot be applied to it. 



Hijpolais rama and Htjpolais caligata. — Mr Seebohm says 

 {op. cit. p. 86), " in colour H. caligata does not differ from " 

 H. rama. Not in faded summer plumage, but when freshly 

 moulted H. rama is pale mouse- grey or a greyish brown, while 

 H. caligata is a warm reddish brown. Apart from size, this is 

 also the notable distinction between Alauda gulgula and my 

 Alauda guttata of Cashmere, one, when freshly moulted, 

 having bright rufous-brown edges to the feathers of the upper 

 surface, while those of A. guttata are dull brown of a purplish 

 tinge ; this proving absolute distinctness. I may here remark 

 that the type of my Alauda australis is in the Indian Museum, 

 Calcutta. It is a very distinct species, strongly differ) )::g 

 from both A. gulgula and A. malabarica. 



Mr. Seebohm [op. cit. p. 120) suppresses the genus Dume- 

 ticola, which is Locustella with a plain back, instead of being 

 streaked, and has not the very minute first primary of Locus- 

 tella and Acrocephalus. Now the Dumeticolce are very close to 

 the Grasshopper Warblers, and have the same Grasshopper- 

 like song, and it won't do at all to class them with a good 

 songster like Lusciniola melanopogon, which bird, in spite of 

 its larger first primary, is really very close to Acrocephalus 

 phragmitis. 



Mr. Seebohm has, no doubt, done his best in attempting 

 to reclassify all these little birds, but working entirely among 

 dry skins, and not having seen the birds in life, he has sig- 

 nally failed. Now Phylloscopus neglectus should never be 

 placed with Phylloscopus indicus and P. fuscatus, but its 

 affinities are with Curruca, except the eye, which has not a 



