354 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



Annam or Cochin China (proper) There is a pair of the same 

 species at this moment in a birdshop here ; and I now believe 

 P. nigripennis to be the species known as the " Bird of Confu- 

 cius/^ the tail-feathers of which are worn in Mandarins' hats as 

 tokens of merit. Chinese works state that the Peacock occurs 

 in the west of China, bordering Cochin China. This iden- 

 tification will please Mr. Sclater. 



I am oiF to Canton for a week or so to finish my report on 

 Hainan for the Government, after which I have to proceed to 

 Peking to report myself to H. M. Minister. I shall probably 

 touch at Shanghai. I hope in the course of two or three months 

 to find myself comfortably settled in one of the Ports of the 

 Yangtsze, either Kinkiang or Hankow, where I may find time 

 to work up my Hainan collection and the last good things pro- 

 cured at Amoy. Fancy Cochoa viridis of the Himalayas being 

 picked up at Amoy ! I am suffering from neuralgic headaches, 

 and was greatly bothered by the same during the whole of the 

 Hainan cruise. This will account for the present hurried letter. 



Yours sincerely, 



Robert Swinhoe. 



Sir, — It does not seem unlikely that the Sparrows mentioned 

 by Capt. Beavan in his last paper [antea, p. 173) were females of 

 Passer pyrrhonotus, nobis, which is an exceedingly well-charac- 

 terized species, though I have only seen the type-specimen of it, 

 which was procured at Buhawulpur in Sindh by Sir A. Burnes. 

 Observers in the North-west Provinces of Upper India should 

 look out for this pretty little Sparrow, the male of which is par- 

 ticularly distinguished by its maroon-coloured rump. Of Embe- 

 riza cia {antea, p. 175, note), I have compared two Himalayan 

 specimens with a European one in the possession of Mr. Gould. 

 The two former, i. e. the particular specimens in question, have 

 the black streaks on the head more strongly developed ; but I 

 have seen others from the Himalaya in which this certainly was 

 not the case, and am of opinion that Mr. Gould's examples are 

 simply particularly fine old males in full summer plumage, 

 which might doubtless be paralleled in Europe. There is no 

 other difference whatever ; and the alleged E. stracheyi, Moore, I 



