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



guished by Mr. Mandelli from their allies, and leaves it to 

 be inferred that I had not acknowledged the fact in the latter 

 case. I mentioned in my description of the Frocarduelis that 

 Mr. Mandelli had sent it and P. nipalensis to me, and had 

 pointed out their distinctness ; but P. saturatus was sent to me 

 by the same energetic ornithologist, together with a large 

 number of other birds, for determination, and without any 

 indication that its discoverer considered it a new species. 

 Mr. Hume doubts whether P. saturatus may not, despite 

 Moore's description, be P. pulcherrimus, Hodgson. To deter- 

 mine this question I have examined Mr. Hodgson's type 

 specimens of the species last named, in the British Museum. 

 They diifer completely from P. saturatus. But still I doubt 

 whether the latter name can stand ; for the bird described by 

 me appears to be the same as Carpodacus edwardsii, Ver- 

 reaux, from Eastern Thibet (Nouv. Archives du Musee,Bull. vi. 

 1870, p. 58). M. Verreaux's paper, however, does not appear 

 to have been received in London in time for mention in the 

 'Zoological Record' for 1870 (wide Ibis, 1872, p. 465, and 

 Zool. Rec. for 1871, pp. 40, 66), and certainly had not reached 

 India when I published the description of P. saturatus in Sep- 

 tember 1871 (Proc. A. S. B. 1871, p. 216) ; so I may, I think, 

 be held excused for not having noticed the earlier description. 

 The second paper in ' Stray Feathers ' mentions the oc- 

 currence of Falco barbarus in India, two specimens having 

 been obtained, one by Dr. Stoliczka, in Kachh, the other by 

 Mr. Blewitt, in the Narsingpur district of the central pro- 

 vinces. I learn from Mr. Sharpe that there has for some 

 years been an Indian specimen of this bird in the British 

 Museum ; the locality, however, is not quoted in Mr. Gray's 

 Hand-list. Passing over a very interesting account of the 

 breeding of Elanus melanopterus (v. cceruleus) in India with 

 the remark that Mr. Layard must be added to the number 

 of those who have described this bird as laying white eggs 

 (Ibis, 1868, p. 242), I must make a few remarks on Mr. 

 Hume's attempt to reduce into order the difficult question of 

 Indian Pied Wagtails. I will preface what I have to say with 

 the suggestion that Mr. Hume's paper was probably written 



