454 NOTESv 



specimen in the museum here. Unfortunately the way Birds 

 had their names changed in that museum during the hiatus^ 

 valde deflendus, that occurred between Blyth's departure and 

 Dr. Anderson's advent, is a caution, and where Blyth's written 

 descriptions differ materially from- specimens named as belong- 

 ing to the species described, we may always rest assured; that the 

 names have been changed. In this present case not only have 1 

 we Blyth's descriptions, showing an utterly irreeoncileable 

 difference in size, but we have the facts, 1st, that Jerdon saw 

 rufescens and said it was new ; 2?id, that he gave me what he 

 called Jerdoni, a totally different and very much smaller bird ; 

 3rd, that he sent home to* the British Museum what he reconsi- 

 dered Jerdoni, which specimen- is one of the small birds such 

 as Blyth described and Jerdon gave me. How any one can go en 

 believing that rufescens and Jerdoni are identical in the face of 

 this passes my comprehension ? 



In a recent paper read May 1st before the Asiatic Society, I 

 stated that having found. 1 that Colonel Tytler's name' " qffinis" for 

 the Andaman Paroquet, which I have recently shown to be 

 distinct from erythrogenys, Blyth,- from the Nicobars, could not 

 stand, that name having already been assigned by Mr. Gould 

 to another species of the same genus, I had named the Andaman 

 bird, P. Tytleri, in memory of my late friend' who did so 

 much towards the elucidation of the Avifauna of the Andaman 

 Islands. 



Looking through for the first time the Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History, in which some ornithologists (most unfor- 

 tunately for us exiles, who cannot keep and who have not access 

 to extensive libraries) now and again describe new species of 

 birds I find that in June 1870 Lord Wald'en described the 

 Malabar Scops Owl as Epliialtes Jerdoni. 



About twenty years previously Jerdon had described this bird 

 as Scops malabaricus,. in his- Second Supplemental Catalogue, and 

 in February 1870, I published this same species in Part II. of 

 my Rough Notes, under Jerdon's name, with a full description. 



Mr. Mandel li writes to inform me that he has procured a 

 specimen of Podoces humilis, Hume, (Lahore to Yarkands, 

 Fig. XXIII.) from Thibetj a little be}^ond the boundary of 

 native Sikhim. 



