Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 321 



thologists wrote about the birds of Lower Bengal, and since 

 Jerdon published their observations, with his own, in the 

 ' Birds of India/ that Mr. P. W. Munn's paper in this month's 

 *^ Ibis ' on the birds of the Calcutta district has almost the 

 charm of novelty; and although Mr. Munn, so far as can be 

 judged from his notes, is not well acquainted with the writings 

 of his predecessors, he may fairly be congratulated on the 

 accuracy of his observations, which are in most cases exactly 

 the same as those previously recorded by other ornithologists. 

 There are, however, two identifications of Mr. Munn's which 

 are, I think, open to question. On p. 52 he records having 

 seen (not secured) a pair of Emberiza schoeniclus near Bar- 

 rackpore. As E. schoeniclus has never previously been noticed 

 in India east of the Punjab, where it is an exceedingly rare 

 visitor, it is probable that the birds seen near Barrackpore 

 were some other Bunting, perhaps E, fucata. Again, on 

 p, 62, Mr. Munn makes the startling statemsnt that Circus 

 cyaneus is '^'' plentiful during the cold season." So far as I 

 can learn, no one ever saw the Hen Harrier in Lower Bengal 

 before ; there is no specimen from Bengal in the Hume 

 Collection, nor, I believe, in the Calcutta Museum ; and as 

 Mr, Munn does not mention either Circus macrurus (C. swain- 

 soni) or C. cineraceus, both of which are of common occur- 

 rence in the cold season near Calcutta, I think one of these 

 is more likely to have been the bird observed by him than 

 C. cyaneus. C. cineraceus (Montagu's Harrier) is more 

 often seen about marshes than C. macrurus, and is, I think, 

 the species that most frequently visits the jheels of the Cal- 

 cutta district. 



Yours &c., 



W. T. Blanford. 



January 30, 1894. 



Sir, — When perusing your last number I came across two 

 points which necessarily attracted my personal and special 

 interest. First, in the Editor's remarks on the ornitho- 

 logical collections in several museums of my native country, 

 a note occurs as follows, with regard to the types of Riippell 

 and others in the Frankfort Museum : — " It is, however, 



