A FEW REMARKS ON SCHXENICOLA PLATYURA. 209 



I hope those correspondents, whose remarks I have above 

 quoted, will accept this as an acknowledgment of their contri- 

 butions. Generally I venture to hope that those who send me 

 information will be satisfied with seeing their facts duly record- 

 ed under their own names in these papers, and will not interpret 

 the non-receipt of a separate private acknowledgment as any indi- 

 cation of a want of gratitude on my part for the assistance they 

 have rendered. The fact simply is, that where communications 

 are plain and to the point, and I have no further questions to 

 put, I cannot always find time to write merely to acknowledge 

 their receipt. 



Once for all let me say how thankful I am to every one who 

 contributes even the smallest scrap of new and reliable inform- 

 ation. 



In conclusion, it is with great regret that I have to announce 

 that, again owing to circumstances beyond our control, the 

 appearance of the third volume is delayed. It may be the 1st 

 of October before it issues. It is all written ; the plates are all in 

 India, and half of the text is printed, but there are no covers 

 and no title page. 



A. O. Hume. 



31 few wmarfts <m ^rhomfcaJa ptoipra. 



By W. Edwin Brooks. 



The Editor was kind enough to lend me his solitary ex- 

 ample of this rare and obscure bird, which I carefully examin- 

 ed. I quite agree with him that it has very much the appear- 

 ance of a large Dumeticola, as we have hitherto used this term, 

 but there are one or two points in which it differs from Dume- 

 ticola, which I shall presently refer to ; and this being the 

 case, I think the generic term Schcenicola should be retained 

 solely for S. platyura, unless other species of the same genus 

 should be discovered. 



The distinctive points worthy of notice in this bird are — 



1. — A rather strong' and well-curved bill, differing consider- 

 ably from the rather straight slender one of Dumeticola, which 

 is almost like that of Locustella. In being much compressed 

 at the sides, the bill of Schcenicola is not unlike that of Dume- 

 ticola, i.e., when it is looked upon from above. 



2. — There are a pair of very strong curved rictal bristles 

 at each side of the gape. These strong bristles won't agree 

 with Dumeticola. 



27 



