A new ? Tolyplectron. 35 



plumes (which reach as far down as the end of the closed wing-) 

 have been thrown out ; the whole visible portion of the secon- 

 dary^ lesser^ and median coverts have become the most brilliant 

 cherry color^ with only narrow white tips ; and the lower tail 

 coverts, flanks, and vent feathers are bright rosy, ting-ed with 

 cherry color, the legs and feet too have become a deep but bril- 

 liant red ; as for the bill, the basal portion is a deep vinous red, 

 the tip black, and the intermediate portion bright crimson lake. 

 In the cold weather, the bill I should mention is similar, but 

 duller colored, the irides have not been noted, but Captain Fielden 

 I see describes them as golden yellow, surrounded by an outer 

 ring of orange scarlet. 



I have owed at different times a good many hundred birds and 

 eggs and much useful iuformation to my friend Mr. Adam ; but 

 no more beautiful or valuable contribution than the six fine 

 specimens of T. Minor, which he has added to my museum. 



When on the subject of flamingoes, I may msntion that 

 some authors have considered our large Indian flamingoes a 

 variety of the European P. Antiquonmt, Temm. chiefly on 

 account of slight differences in the shape of the bill. Mr. Gray 

 loc. cit., figures bills both of the European species and tlie 

 supposed Indian variety ; and remarks, " Fig. 2 represents the bill 

 of a very old Indian example, which is considered to be a variety 

 of the former, (P. A7itiqtcoruvi ,) but there are several slight 

 differences in it. For iustaoce, the angulation beneath the lower 

 mandible appears stronger and its tip appears less swollen. A 

 young specimen in the British jMuseum, from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, has the bill of a very similar form, so much so, that I am 

 induced to consider it the same as the Mediterranean species.'"' 

 Perhaps, Mediterranean is here r lapsus pennoi, for Indian, but be 

 this as it may, my present conviction is that the bill he figures 

 as the Indian variety is characteristic of the female. My grounds 

 for this belief are first that all my Indian males have bills 

 exactly corresponding with his figure of Antiquorum, while the 

 females have the bill supposed to be characteristic of the Indian 

 variety ; and second, that the only European specimen I possess, a 

 female, from Mr, Howard Saunders, Coto del Reg. 18-4-69, 

 exhibits precisely the phape of bill figured by Mr. Gray, as that 

 of a very old Indian example. 



A. O. H. 



% ncio ? lolH^U^rtr^it. 



I HAVE been shown some of the tail feathers of a Tolyplectron; 

 obtained in the Looshaie country, which I cannot identify as 



