206 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



the outer webs more or less suffused with this color; chin, 

 throat and breast greyish white, the feathers tipped and margined 

 with pale slightly fulvous yellow, and with an indistinct dusky 

 subterminal band ; abdomen, vent, lower tail coverts, wing- 

 lining* and axillaries, perfectly pure white without bar or spot. 



This species was only observed on the islands of the 

 Andaman group. 



270 quat.— Graucalus Dobsoni, Ball (15.) 



I think it was my friend Mr. Blanford who was recently reprov- 

 ing me for describing birds as new without examining all the 

 ornithological works and museums of the world to make sure that 

 they had not possibly been already described by some one else. 

 The fact is I have hitherto been much too chary of describing- 

 birds as new. I had specimens of this very bird and recog- 

 nized them as distinct from any Graucalus of which I could 

 find a description long before my friend Mr. Ball saw or 

 described it ; but I could find no description of G. eoncretus 

 and G. striatus, and so abstained from publishing and describ- 

 ing it. 



Lord Walden has recently told us that this present bird is 

 quite distinct from these two species, and we may safely accept 

 his verdict. 



The following are the dimensions of this handsome species: — 



Leno-th, 11*5 to 12*25; expanse, 17*5 to 19 ; wing, 6*1 to 

 6*42 ; "tail, from vent, 5 to 6 ; bill, at front, 0'94 to 1-06. The 

 bill, legs, and feet are black; the irides crimson lake, tinged 

 brownish in the young, and very possibly altogether brown in 

 the quite young birds. 



We only procured eleven specimens of this species, four 

 being subsequently sent us ; so I am not quite certain of all 

 the changes of plumage. 



The perfect adult male, as far as I can judge, (though there 

 may be an older stage), has the point of the forehead, the lores, 

 a stripe under the eyes, and the ear-coverts black. The whole 

 of the front top and back of the head, back and sides of the 

 neck, back, scapulars, and lesser wing coverts, rump, and upper 

 tail coverts, a uniform dark iron grey, only slightly paler on the 

 rump ; quills, greater and median coverts dark hair brown, paler 

 •on the inner webs, every feather with a very narrow pale edging, 

 orey on the coverts, pale brown on the tips of the primaries, and 

 only at all conspicuous, on some of the primaries above the 

 emarginations, and some of the later secondaries towards their 

 tips, and even on these excessively narrow. I may mention that 



