34 Mr. E. Blyth on the Ornithology of the neighbourhood of 



Annelida, to infer that its production depends very intimately 

 upon the influence exerted by the neiTOus system in giving rise 

 to muscular contraction. This, observes Milne Edwards, becomes 

 highly probable from the fact, that in the Beroes of the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea I have constantly remarked that their very brilliant 

 light emanated from the ciliated sides of the body, the principal 

 seat of the locomotive function. 



XL — Further Observations on the Ornithology of the neighbourhood 

 of Calcutta. By Edward Blyth, Curator to the Museum of 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal. With Notes by H. E. Strick- 

 land, M.A. 



Calcutta, March 18, 1844. 



The cold season of 1843-44 having now terminated, and the time 

 for collecting specimens of the feathered class fast drawing to its 

 close, I shall again pass under review the various species of bu'ds 

 which I have hitherto succeeded in procm'ing in this immediate 

 neighboui'hood, a task to which I am partly impelled by perusal 

 of Mr. Strickland^s interesting 'Notes' (vol. xiii. pp. 32 et seq., 

 ante), which have just reached me. 



Nos. 1 and 4*. Palaornis Alexandri and P. pondicerianus . Both of 

 these are strictly hill species, and I doubt if either of them is ever 

 met with in the vicinity of Calcutta. With reference to the enume- 

 ration of the species of this genus which I appended in a note, I may 

 remark that there is a " Psittacns (^Conurus) himalayanus " of Lesson 

 described in the ' Zoologie du Voyage de M. Belanger,' p. 239, which 

 is doubtless a Pulaornis, and would seem to resemble P. schisticeps, 

 except in having the under parts to the belly uniform ash-gray. 

 " Inhabits the valleys of the Himalaya." I have never seen it. 



The Psittaculus vernalis appears also to be exclusively a hill spe- 

 cies. 



Of the Raptores, I have prepared an elaborate monograph of the 

 Indian species, wherein a very considerable number of synonyms have 

 been reduced, and which is at present awaiting publication. 



The whole of the true Falcons of India appear to visit this neigh- 

 bourhood during the cool season, with the exceptions of F. Jldro- 

 vandi, which I have only seen from the Himalaya, and the F. cherrug 

 of Hardwicke and Gray, which is evidently the lanner, F. lanarius, 

 and which is not yet well established as Indian, though the name F. 

 cherrug occurs in a MS. catalogue of the birds of Nepal prepared by 

 Mr. Hodgson. I have somewhere read that a large falcon called 

 Cherg or Cherrug is highly esteemed in Persia for flying at bustards 

 and other large game : and there can be little doubt that the lanner 



* These numbers refer to Mr. Blytli's paper, Annals, vol. xii, p. 90, and 

 vol. xiii. pp. 113, 175. 



