312 THE BIRDS OF GILGIT. 



bright greenish yellow ; bill, dingy plumbeous ; toes, dull plum- 

 beous ; cere, dull plumbeous. 



Believed to be common, but, though very often heard in 

 Gilgit, most difficult to see. 



29.-— Scops brucii, Hume (74 sept). 



A single specimen shot ; many others heard, but most diffi- 

 cult to find in the daytime. The specimen obtained corre- 

 sponds exactly, to the minutest detail, with the description 

 given by Mr. Hume (Stray Feathers, I., p. 9). 



Another specimen, a male, shot just across the Indus at 

 Boonji, opposite the mouth of the Gilgit river, also corre- 

 sponds in all points with the description, except that the pure 

 buff feathers forming the ruff are more broadly tipped with 

 dark brown. 



The fact of the specimens from this north-westerly locality* 

 corresponding exactly with those originally described from 

 Ahmednuggur, places beyond a doubt the right of this species 

 to specific separation from 5. gin. (See observations in 

 Sharpe's " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum/' Vol. II., 

 pp. 62, 63.) 



30— Hirundo rustica, Lin. (82). 



Seen at intervals all through the summer. The earliest 

 date at which any Swallow was remarked was 4th March. 

 Specimens obtained in March, May, and June belong to 

 typical H. rustica. Length, 775 inches ; wing, 5 ; tail, 4. 



31.— Hirundo nipalensis, Hodgs.f (85 bis.) 



A few seen and two specimens shot on 16 th May, among 

 a large number of Chelidon cashmeriensis. 



32.— Cotile rupestris, Scop. (91). 



|_Two specimens brought ; these are the true C. rupestris, 



larger and darker than the southern C. obsoleta. Length, 5 '85 



to 6*25 inches; wing, 5*3 to 5; tail, 2 25 ; tarsus, *45. Irides, 

 brown.— G. F. L. M.] 



* [Many specimens have also been sent from Sindh and Quettah, and one from 

 Dehra Ismael Khan. — A. O. H.] 



f The species here referred to is H. erythropygia, Sykes, — J. S. 



[This is an unsatisfactory sort of note. Captain G-. F. L. Marshall certainly knows 

 H. nipalensis. He may have made a mistake, but it is not likely, and as prima facie 

 the birds in Gilgit are more likely to be nipalensis than erythropygia, something 

 more than Dr. Scully's ipse dictum was necessary. Dimensions should have been 

 given, and a description of rump band and other diagnostical points (vide S. P., V., 265) 

 so as to prove if such be the fact, that Dr. S. was right and Captain Marshall wrong. — 

 A. O. H.] 



