576 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



SiKs, — Some time ago Mr. Eagle Clarke took to Tring 

 the Aving of a small species of lliylloscojms in order to 

 identify the bird to Avhich it belonged, but there was no 

 species represented in the Tring Museum with which it 

 could be compared. I have several times told Mr. Eagle 

 Clarke that I was myself personally satisfied that I had 

 diagnosed it correctly as belouging to the rare P. neglectas 

 of Hume, which that ornithologist found in Cashmere. I 

 have the other wing here. It absolutely agrees in the 

 formnla of the wing-pattern with Mr. II. E. Dresser^s 

 formula given in his ' Birds of the Eastern Palaearctic 

 Region ' (p. 98). The specimen of which these are the 

 wings was shot in Tirce by JNIr. Peter Anderson and 

 sent in the flesh to me. But tlie Post Office stamper had 

 ntterly destroyed it, crushing in both head and most of 

 the back, whilst part of the tail-feathers had been shot away. 

 Only the wings were saved. The feathers of the lower back 

 shewed a dusky broivnish olive — nut greenish olive. In the 

 crushed head there was just the suspicion of a pale super- 

 ciliary streak. There are no wing-bars. 



Should my diagnosis, from the wing alone, be correct, 

 I think I may claim to have here recorded the first oc- 

 currence of this species in Britain, and per/iaps its first 

 occurrence in Europe. The only specimens known to me 

 are Hume's own specimens in the British Museum, and 

 Dresser's, now in the IManchester Museum. Mr. T. 

 Davidson — of Edinburgh — tells me that he has the eggs, 

 but never obtained a specimen of the bird. I fancy that 

 I once possessed a specimen, but whence it came I cannot 

 now recollect. 



I am, Sirs, 



Yours &c., 



J. A. Hauvie-Brown. 



Dnnipace House, 

 I-arbert, N.ll, 

 17ih June, ion. 



