Letters, Announcements, ^t. 355 



therefore consider to be inadmissible as a species sufficiently dis- 

 tinguished from E. cia. As regards Pyrrliulauda grisea [antea, p. 

 180), this bird is quite common a very few miles above Barrack- 

 pore, becoming so as the country gets more sandy, and wherever 

 the Baubul ( Vachellia furnesiana) abounds. Calandrella brachy- 

 dactyla has always the blackish patch on each side of the breast ; 

 but in newly-moulted plumage this is little seen. The same 

 patch is occasionally so much developed in Melanocorypha tor- 

 quata as to meet its opposite in front, as was the case in the 

 example from which I named the species. 



Col. Tytler, in his paper, mentions two birds by the names of 

 Dicrurns himalayanus {anteci, p. 200) and Emberiza himalayensis 

 {antea, p. 201), which I have great reason to suspect are no other 

 than D. lungicaudatus (the common hill species) and E. intyor- 

 nis. His Turtur meena {antea, p. 203), " common at all heights 

 from 4000 to 9000 feet,^^ must needs be the common Himalayan 

 form of the same particular type, T. monticolus, Pallas {apud 

 Jerdon), which is considei'ably larger than T. meena, and has 

 white under tail-coverts, instead of their being deep ashy. T. 

 monticolus, indeed, is precisely similar in colouring to the Eu- 

 ropean T. auritus, from which it differs only in its very superior 

 size. In T". gelastes, Temm., of Japan, the lower tail-coverts are 

 pale ashy ; and the hue of the upper parts in T. meena is always 

 much deeper and richer than in the others. That Tardus albo- 

 cinctus and T. castaneus {antea, p. 198) are specifically identical 

 I have long been disposed to think, but I regard them rather as 

 two parallel phases than as indicative of age; and I suspect the 

 same of T. atrogularis and T. ruficollis, especially as some exam- 

 ples of the former have the tail more or less rufous as in the 

 latter. 



In Mr. Hume's letter, for Saxicola leucuroides (pp. 234-5), 

 substitute /S^. opistholeaca, Strickland ; S. leucuroides has ferru- 

 ginous lower tail-coverts. 



E. Blyth. 



May 9, 1868. 

 Sir, — There is an unfortunate mistake in my paper as printed 



