180 NOTES ON THE LIST OF THE BIRDS OF INDIA. 



Leach to the Common Sparrow Hawk, and thus became a 

 synonj'm of Accipiter. The same name Hierax was again used 

 by Vigors for the pigmy falcon, but as the generic name had 

 been previously employed, Mr. Sharpe, in 1874, substituted 

 Microhierax. Thus if names like HeterorJiynchus are retained, 

 it is clear that Hierax should also be preserved. 



56 ter. — Milvus affinis. — Mr. Gurney now {Ibis, 1879, p. 76) 

 considers the smaller Indian Kite inseparable from M. govinda. 

 He also notices the manner in which the three kites, M. mela- 

 notis, M. govinda and M. affinis, pass into each others — a point to 

 which 1 shall have to recur presently. 



60 hii.—Strix deroepstorffi. — S]iirix roepstorffi would surely be 

 better. It is not usual to add a prefix like de or von to a 

 specific name, unless the affix has become part of the surname 

 as in Delessert. 



Ill bis. — Gap?'imulgus unwini. — I greatly doubt if this can 

 be kept apart from C. europceus. The case is not an ordinary 

 one of geographical races, but there are several birds, of which 

 the forms living in comparatively damp climates are darker- 

 coloured and somewhat more rufous, whilst the varieties found 

 in dry regions are lighter and greyer. Sitta syriaea and S. 

 tephrojiota, the two varieties of Certhilauda desertorum and the 

 Chukars of the Himalaya and of Sind or Persia, will serve as 

 examples, and I have called attention to several others in the 

 Zoology of Persia. I may, of course, be mistaken, as I have 

 not had an opportunity of comparing C. unwini with Central 

 Asiatic forms of C. europceus, but if, as I think, the two agree 

 they are connected by intermediate varieties with typical C. 

 europceus. Moreover, the distinction is, I think, solely due to 

 the climate, and it is quite possible that C. unwini, if carried 

 alive to Europe and kept in a damper climate with less sun- 

 light, might, on moulting, become C. europceus. 



149, 149 bis. — Paleeornis purpureus, according to Mr. Hume, 

 if I understand rightly, is the Indian or western race ; P. cya~ 

 nocephalus the Burmese or eastern form. Captain Legge, in 

 the Birds of Ceylon, has shewn that the Indian Parroquet is the 

 true P. cyanocephalus, of Linnaeus, and that the Burmese form 

 is P. rosa. I have not gone much into the matters, but so 

 far as I have, I think Captain Legge is correct. 



318. — Siphia tricolor. — I was uuder the impression that this 

 supposed species was acknowledged to be merely the female of 

 S. leucomelanura. If so, the name should be in italics. That the 

 two forms are the two sexes of one bird is distinctly Mr. Man- 

 deUi's view, and both Mr. Brooks and Mr. Sharpe concur, the 

 latter having lately figured both birds as male and female in 

 the 4th volume of the British Museum Catalogue. 



