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



gulgula, Franklin, for which Mr. Hume adopts as the oldest 

 name A. malabarica, Scopoli, under the belief that the figure 

 in Sonnerat's book, upon which Scopoli's name was founded, 

 represents the rufous bird inhabiting the Nilgiri hills in 

 Southern India. Against this use of Scopoli's name I must 

 enter a caveat. Dr. Jerdon' s Alauda malabarica was, I be- 

 lieve, Spizalauda deva (cf. J. A. S. B. vol. xxxviii. pt. ii. 

 p. 183, and vol. xxxix. pt. ii. p. 119) ; and I am told by Lord 

 Walden that Dr. Jerdon, after his return to England, on see- 

 ing a copy of Sonnerat's work with coloured plates, satisfied 

 himself that his identification of Scopoli's bird was correct. 

 If this be the case, Spizalauda deva will become S. malabarica, 

 and the Nilgiri Skylark will require a name, if it be necessary 

 to separate it from A. gulgula, Frankl. ; but Jerdon, who knew 

 both races well, did not separate them, and Mr. Hume's 

 opinion also tends towards union. 



I pass on to what I cannot but consider the most important 

 subject treated in the whole number, the Ornithology of Sind. 

 Mr. Hume's short note is, so far as I know, the first attempt 

 at any general account of the avifauna of one of the most 

 remarkable parts of India, although a few of the most im- 

 portant birds met with in Sind were mentioned in a letter 

 from Mr. Hume, printed in last year's ' Ibis/ p. 46. My own 

 experience of the province is small ; but so far as it goes, it 

 entirely agrees with Mr. Hume's description ; and as regards 

 the interest of the matter to myself, I can only say that for 

 years I have been in hopes of making such a collection of 

 Sind birds as Mr. Hume has succeeded in bringing together, 

 and I sincerely trust that he will give, as he promises, a 

 complete list of the birds he has obtained in the province. 

 Meantime I have one or two brief remarks to make on the 

 species mentioned. 



Blandfordius striatulus, which, however, is not described, 

 is probably a new genus as well as species ; at least I do not 

 think I have met with the description of the genus elsewhere 

 in ornithology. If the generic name is, as I presume, a compli- 

 ment to myself, and the d in the middle is one of the numerous 

 additions with which, as every writer who has suffered knows, 



