Mr. W. T. Blanford on 'Stray Feathers.' 217 



by the coloration of the tail. Mr. Hume says he has never 

 seen D. sylvaticus. I am greatly mistaken if there be not a 

 specimen in the Asiatic Society's Museum in Calcutta, in bad 

 condition it is true, but which should suffice to determine 

 whether the tail resembles that described in D. insignis. Mr. 

 Hume's D. rufescens (Ibis, 1872, p. 110) has been shown by 

 Dr. Stoliczka (J. A. S. B. 1872, vol. xli. pt. 2, p. 241) to be 

 D. Jerdoni, Blyth (conf. Jerdon, Birds of India, vol. ii. p. 180) . 

 Both Mr. Hume and Dr. Stoliczka retain the genus Drymoipus 

 for these Indian birds. It is greatly to be wished that they 

 would define its characters and show how it is to be distin- 

 guished from the African Drymceca. 



A new Ninox from the Nicobar Islands, N. obscurus, is 

 next described, followed by Mirafra immaculata, sp. nov., a 

 species distinguished from M. assamica by being browner in 

 colour above, with few and ill-defined striations, more rufous 

 below, with scarcely any trace of spots on the breast. As 

 only a single specimen from Deobund, a hill near Masuri, 

 has been procured, it is impossible to help suggesting that 

 this bird may be merely an individual variety of M. assamica, 

 which occurs in the neighbourhood, but apparently at lower 

 elevations, as we know that all Larks are liable to variation in 

 precisely the characters pointed out — the greyer or more 

 rufous coloration, and the distinctness of the dorsal striation 

 and pectoral spots. Whether M . immaculata is a Avell-marked 

 species or not can only be determined by a careful search for 

 additional specimens. 



Of the last two novelties on the list, Procarduelis mandellii 

 is my P. rubescens, published, with a figure, in the ' Proceed- 

 ings of the Zoological Society ' for 1871, p. 693, pi. lxxiv.; and 

 Eudromias tenuirostris is, I think, undoubtedly founded on a 

 young specimen of JEgialitis hartingi, Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1870, 

 p. 136, pi. xii., described from the Yang-tse-Kiang in China. 

 Mr. Harting, to whom I am indebted for an opportunity of 

 examining a specimen of Swinhoe's species, agrees with me 

 in thinking the two identical. 



In his remarks on Procarduelis mandellii, Mr. Hume says 

 that both it and Propasser saturatus, W. Bl., were distin- 



ser. in. — VOL. III. Q 



