324 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



Length, SO ; tail, 18-25 ; wing, 1075 ; bill, at front, 21 • 

 from gape, 2*8 ; height, at front, 0"6 ; tarsus, 0*9 ; mid toe 

 and claw, 1'6, The first primary is the longest; the second 

 0'05 shorter ; the third 0*55 ; and the fourth 1*2 shorter. 



998— Sula fiber, Lin. (0 ) 



When out at sea about opposite Preparis on the 4th March, 

 and again when near the Cocos, we saw each time a pair of dusky 

 boobies chasing flying fish ; one pair passed within a short dis- 

 tance of the vessel, and I am pretty confident that they belonged 

 to this species. 



1004.— Pelecanus pliilippensis, Gm. (0.) 



We certainly saw nothing of any Pelicans either at the Anda- 

 mans or Nicobars, nor did we hear of their ever occurring 

 there. At the Andamans they certainly do not occur, but 

 Blyth says that Captain Lewis brought him a specimen of the 

 present species from the Nicobars. I therefore admit this 

 species into our list, but I am bound to say that in the whole 

 Nicobars I did not see a single place such as, according to my 

 experience, pliilippensis affects. In regard to this and one or two 

 other species recorded solely on Captain Lewis'' authority, I think 

 it necessary to point out that mistakes may possibly have 

 occurred. Captain Lewis was not a Naturalist, though he 

 kindly collected specimens from time to time for the museum, 

 and he brought skins up from both the Burmese coast and the 

 Nicobars, and it is not impossible that some of his specimens 

 from the two localities may have got intermixed. 



A. O. H. 



[Note. — Some Subscribers at home write protesting against my "loading" my 

 " pages with elaborate descriptions of birds, of which quite sufficient though possibly 

 less, full, and accurate descriptions can be found in every ornithological library." 



Now once for all be it understood that Stray Feathers are designed primarily 

 for the use of Indian Field Naturalists, whose ornithological libraries for the most 

 part begin and end with Jerdon's Birds of India, and my " Rough Notes," and that, 

 therefore, it is an unalterable principle of this periodical, that every species therein 

 referred to, occurring, or likely to occur within our limits, and not included in either 

 of thpse works, shall when mentioned for the first time, be as fully described as possi- 

 ble, anything in any ornithological libraries in the world to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. — Eb.] ^, 



