FURREEDPORE, EASTERN BENGAL. 257 



migrating, flying eastwards ; the flock from which the above 

 was shot numbered about 50 individuals. 



85.— Hirundo erythropygia, Sykes. 



$tk April 1878, Female.— Length, 7-08 ; expanse, 12*25 ; 

 wing, 4'50 ; tail from vent, 4*0 ; tarsus, 0'46 ; bill from gape, 

 0'58 ; bill at front, O30 ; closed wings fall short of end of tail, 

 1*40 ; weight, 0*62 oz. Bill and legs black ; irides brown. 



Very common. I neglected securing this kind in time, and 

 only got this one out of a flock of 50 that was mio-ratino-, 

 flying eastwards. 



89.— *Cotyle sinensis, Gray. 



Very common during the cold weather ; their nesting holes 

 seen in all the high banks ; breed in February and March. By 

 the end of April all have left the district. 



102.*— Cypselus batassiensis, J. B. Gray. 



Very common, and a permanent resident. I shot a speci- 

 men on the 12th March 1878, and which measured : — Length, 

 4*92; expanse, 10*50; wing, 4'25 ; tail from vent, 2 "33 ; tar- 

 sus, 0-40; bill from gape, 0'50 ; weight, 0'37 oz. ; closed wings 

 exceed tail, 0"50. It was a male, and the testes were well 

 developed. The specimen went bad, and I quite forgot to secure 

 another before leaving the district. 



109.— Caprimulgus albonotatus, TicJcell 



8tk February 1878, Female. — Length, 11*0 ; wing, 7-66 ; 

 tail from vent, 6-0; tarsus, 0*60; bill from gape, 1-42 ; bill at 

 front, 0-40 ; closed wings fall short of end of tail, 1-83. Ova- 

 ries size of peas.* 



* Although this specimen is so small, and the two next so large, yet, so far as 

 coloration is concerned (vide S. P., VI., 68), all three specimens are correctly 'assigned. 

 The fact is macrourus, at any rate of the Malay Peninsular, quite runs" into' 

 albonotatus of the plains of India, and especially in localities like Furreedpore, numbers 

 of specimens occur, which, if dimensions are relied upon, must be assigned to the one 

 species, but which, if coloration be looked to, must be referred to the other. In other 

 words they belong to a region where physical influences, past and present, are 

 cumulatively more or less intermediate between those that in one region 'have 

 determined the albonotatus form and in another the macrourus form. 



One of the great difficulties of the present day is that ornithologists cannot be persu- 

 aded to treat the whole number of similar cases, of which this empire alone presents 

 over 50, on one and the same principle, and either accept or refuse to accept, such nearly 

 allied, completely interlinked forms, as distinct species. It matters little which we 

 decide to do ; but it is fatal to those higher generalizations, for which our work is 

 accumulating materials, to persist in doing as modern ornithologists do, viz. in 

 precisely parallel cases, making two species, where one pair of interlinked forms' are 

 concerned, and only ono where another exactly similar and similarly connected and 

 circumstanced pair, arc dealt with. — Ed. s. F, 



