214 Mr. W. T. Blanford on ' 'Stray Feathers.' 



but ray descriptiou of 0. elwesi was in print before I received 

 his letter. 



I think that, so far as separating a bird on insufficient 

 grounds is excusable, my mistake in the case of 0. elwesi may 

 be pardoned ; for I find that better ornithologists than myself 

 had long since considered the short-billed race distinct from 

 O. longirostris. The former extends to Siberia; and speci- 

 mens from that country have found their way into European 

 collections under the name of " 0. albigula, Brandt." This 

 name, however, does not appear to have been published by the 

 great naturalist of St. Petersburg; and the 0. albigula of Bona- 

 parte's l Conspectus/ p. 246, is clearly 0. penicillata, Gould 

 (vel scriba, Bp.) . 



Now, as one good turn deserves another, I must point out 

 that some of Mr. Hume's supposed novelties will accompany 

 Otocorys elwesi to " the limbo of synonyms." The first paper 

 in ' Stray Feathers ' contains the descriptions of no less than 

 eleven birds which Mr. Hume considers new to science. He, 

 however, in a few paragraphs preceding the descriptions, points 

 out that he does not dogmatically assert that all are positively 

 new ; he has been unable to identify them, and he considers 

 the most ready means of ascertaining whether they are new 

 or not is to publish descriptions. That this means will be 

 successful is probable ; whether it be the best plan to name 

 birds which it is found difficult to identify, on the chance of 

 their being new, is, of course, matter of opinion. 



The first species described, Ptionoprogne pallida, from Sind, 

 is Cotyle obsoleta, Cab., an African Rock-Martin. Like Mr. 

 Hume, I obtained this bird in Sind and Baluchistan ; and I 

 have compared my specimens with African skins in the British 

 Museum. The second species, Saxicola alboniger, a large 

 form allied to S. picata, Blyth, is, to the best of my belief, 

 new. It certainly is not S. leucopygia*, Brehm; nor is it 



* Mr. Hume says lie cannot find the description of this bird. It will 

 be found in the Journ. f. Ornith. 1858, p. 60, and is from Egypt, not Pales- 

 tine. It is also described in Shelley's ' Birds of Egypt,' pp. 79, 80. The 

 outer tail-feathers are entirely white, as in S. monacha, and the breast and 

 abdomen black. 



