Mm. 



Indian Ornithologists are greatly indebted to both Mr. W. T. 

 Blanford and the editor of the " Ibis/^ for a most vahiable and kind- 

 ly notice of " Stray Feathers" which appeared in the April " Ibis." 



This article is exactly what I hoped to see. With European 

 museums and libraries to consult, Mr. Blanford supplies many of 

 our deficiencies and corrects errors which^ situated as we are here^ 

 are at times inevitable. 



It is impossible to overrate the assistance that ornithology in 

 India would receive from similar critiques at Home of our work 

 here. After all we are most of us in this country field 

 naturalists ; put us any where about the country, let us feel the 

 temj)erature; have a glance round at the physical character of 

 the scenery ; see a little of the veg-etation^ and we can tell pretty 

 well what birds will be found in the neighbourhood : where 

 exactly to look for them, what they will be feeding on_, where- 

 abouts to look for their nests, and a good many other particulars^ 

 the knowledge of which is of more value in our eyes than in 

 those of what we somewhat irreverently term " Cabinet natura- 

 lists." But Cabinet naturalists are no less essential to the real 

 progress of science than field naturalists, and the great mistake 

 that both classes habitually make^ is to undervalue each the labors 

 of the others. I myself have no such feelings. I greatly prefer 

 for my own part the out-door work ; but this makes me onh^ the 

 more grateful to those who are content to plod over ponderous 

 lists of synonyms, and correct the errors of nomenclature into 

 which field naturalists far away from libraries and general 

 museums are sure to fall. 



And now to recapitulatCj briefly, the corrections with which 

 Mr. Blanford furnishes us. 



First, he now concurs with me in considering Otocoris El- 

 wesi identical with 0. longirostris ; next, he points out that my 

 Vtionoprogne pallida (" Stray Feathers,^' vol. I., p. 1.,) is an Af- 

 rican species already named b}^ Cabanis, Cotyle ohsoleta, and by 

 tliis specific name the bird must henceforth be known. Fuffinus 

 persicus, nobis [" Stray Feathers,'" vol. I., p. 5,) he thinks is pro- 

 bably identical with F. obscurus ; but seems to agree with me 

 that more specimens are essential to a satisfactory conclusion ou 

 this point. Mr. Blanford is of opinion, and in this, the great 

 authority, Mr. Harting, is disposed to concur with him, that my 

 Etidromias temmirostris, is founded on a young specimen of JEgia- 

 litis Hartingi, Swinhoe, (P. Z. 8.^1870^ p. 136, pi. 12,) described 

 from the Yang-tsi-kyang in China. 



M 



