LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 237 



One of my cocks gave chase to a rather small black hen, and 

 a larger and stronger kind rushed at him to prevent his paying 

 his addresses, and a fight ensued. A Black Drake, seeing how 

 matters stood, and what a mull the two had made of it, made a 

 most determined rush at the hen, and after a long stern chase 

 caught her and made a series of ineffectual attempts to seduce 

 her. Meanwhile the two combatants stopped their fight and 

 followed the hen and drake, and then they stared one on each 

 side with long out-stretched necks, but they never tried to assist 

 the unfortunate hen. The drake left her and there she lay, I 

 thought dead at first, for she never stirred, but she was only 

 exceedingly shocked and got up at last a very untidy and 

 ruffled bird ; most of her neck feathers had been pulled out 

 by the ferocious drake. I wish Mr. Darwin had seen how the 

 principles of natural selection are sometimes carried out. 

 Muddapur, W. E. Brooks. 



25th May 1880. 



Sir, 



I notice in your Journal, Vol. VIII., 386 and 500, 

 with reference to Palumbus casiotis in the collection of the Kurra- 

 chee Museum, the notes by Captain Butler. His memory has 

 not served him well in this instance. The example in the collec- 

 tion here really is Palumbus casiotis ; the neck patch is buff and 

 not white, and Captain Butler may be in error in stating that 

 Mr. Murray expressed any doubts on the subject — Mr. Murray 

 being too good an ornithologist to mistake this bird for torquatus. 

 The example is not, and never could have been, labelled Golumba 

 livia; it is very badly mounted on a common piece of board, 

 and is evidently the work of some native who knew very little 

 about the art of bird-stuffing, and certainly never could have 

 come from England. The entry in the museum catalogue is 

 P. casiotis, locality unknown. Mr. Murray also refers to this 

 example in his Hand Book of the Zoology of Sind, with the 

 remark, " said to be from Upper Sind." 



Have you any note of the nidification in Sind of JEsacus 

 recurvirostris ? On the Queen's birthday, when mahsir fishing at 

 the Hubb near Minad Khan's place, I found one solitary egg 

 lying in the sand in the river-bed; no nest of any kind. The 

 egg is now in the museum here. 



KURRACHEE, C. SwiNHOE, Major. 



18tt June 1880. 



Sir, — Having now sent you a series of skins of 689 — 

 Sturnia blythi, Jerdon, in various stages of plumage, I feel 

 sure that you will agree with me in considering it a good spe- 



