54 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



His Lordship then writes a long * letter to the Ibis to prove 

 that he is right, and that affinis is castaneus, &c. 



This is, of course, a mistake. Any one who has once seen 

 affinis could never confound it with castaneus, but there was a 

 serious blunder in my paper, which his Lordship failed to detect, 

 and that was, that in copying from the paper in which dimen- 

 sions of the several species were recorded, the dimensions of 

 the bills of javanensis were given for those of affinis, I having 

 (though perfectly correct as to the entire distinctness of affinis 

 and castaneus) made in writing out my paper hurriedly from 

 notes almost as great a muddle as his Lordship. 



However, the main point for ornithologists is the distinct- 

 ness of the several species ; and, pending the appearance of a 

 monographic note on the Indian and Malayan species which 

 I have by me, I reproduce, to prevent any miscomprehension 

 amongst my Indian readers, extracts fron a letter which I 

 recently addressed to the Editors of the Ibis. 



" There exist in the Malay Peninsula, besides the magnificent 

 B. a%ritus,\ which cannot well be confounded with any other 

 Asiatic form, two distinct rufous forms of BatracJwstomi. 



i€ The one, the larger javanensis, apud Blyth, with conspi- 

 cuous white wing spots, with the wing usually measuring from 

 4*75 to 5, and with a bill from 1*3 to 1*4 wide at base, and from 

 l - 37 to 1*49 straight from angle of gape to tip of bill. I have 

 twenty specimens of this form now before me They vary a 

 great deal in the tone of the upper and lower plumage; the 

 upper surface from light dingy chestnut to a very deep rufous 

 brown | and the lower surface correspondingly, though in a 

 lesser degree, but all unmistakably belong to the same species. 



" The other, the smaller, affinis, apud Blyth, with in three spe- 

 cimens out of four, no white spots on the wings, with wings 

 varying from 4"28 to 4*6§ and with bills varying in width, at gape 

 from 0"95 to 1*13 and in length from gape to tip from 1'05 to 

 1*33. I have four specimens of this form before me; one is 

 precisely similar to the type ; three answer well to Blyth's des- 

 cription, but the fourth has some spots upon the wing, and may, 



* His Lordship in this letter seems to think that any one who ventures to 

 dispute his dicta is a public offender. This is very childish ; we are all quite willing 

 to give him full credit for all the good work he does and has done ; but of course if he 

 will mar the effect of this by flagrant self-sufficiency and an affectation of being 

 the supreme authority in such matters, he will be laughed at, despite all his merits, 

 and when he makes blunders, as he and all of us too often do, of course he will be 

 more sat upon than other less pretentious mortals. 



"f This is also the Bombycistoma fullertonii vel bombycivoras, Hay, J. A. S. B, 

 X., 574, a voluminous designation that requires a mouth almost proportionally as 

 large as the bird's own to give it a duly sonorous utterance. This grand designation was 

 bestowed, the author naively tells us, " the supposition being that it rests on branches 

 to receive and devour that immense moth, the Bombyx atlas,"! 



J In this stage it seems to be stictopterus of Cabanis. 



§ Blyth gives the wing as 4'5. 



