LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 413 



shafts ; while in crecca these parts are very dark brown, each 

 feather conspicuously margined with white, greyish white or 

 buffy white. 



The wing specula are very similar, but in crecca the tippings 

 of the secondary greater coverts are broader, and are white, 

 only tinged with buff posteriorly. In the present species they 

 are narrower and rufous buff throughout ; again, the white tip- 

 pings of the secondaries themselves are much broader in this 

 species than in crecca. 



I don't know whether Mr. Seebohm is right in re-naming the 

 Black-backed Black-line-through-the-eye Wagtail (see Ibis, 

 1878, p. 345, pi. 9)j but I have a beautiful specimen of this species 

 from Mr. Swinhoe, labelled by him, " No. 1302, Hakodadi, 

 Japan, Male, Mar/, Motacilla japonica JS.," showing, I think, that 

 this was the bird he intended by his name japonica. I have 

 another specimen collected by H. G. St. John shot in Tapan, 

 China, May 1866, also from Mr. Swinhoe labelled by him Mo- 

 tacilla japonica. I cannot think that Mr. Seebohm is right in 

 jornorinof this name. 



I MAY NOTE that the Grey-backed Black-line-through-the-eye 

 Wagtail [M. ocularis) is excessively common in the cold weather 

 about Moulmein, where Davison secured about 50 specimens in 

 a very short time, quite identical with Mr. Swinhoe's specimens. 



%tikn U tk MxUx. 



Sir, 



As a matter of justice I hasten to disclaim the arrange- 

 ment of Carinate Birds, ascribed to me by my friend Mr. 

 Lydekker in the number of Stray Feathers (VIII, pp. 27, 28) 

 which has this day reached me. Mr. Lydekker seems not to 

 have noticed the initials " W. K. P.,^' which are subscribed 

 (^at page 728) to the first part of the article " Birds in the 

 new edition of the ' Encyclopsedia Britanniea.' ^' That first part 

 is the work of one whose train-bearer I am proud to be — one 

 who is the most original anatomist the world has seen since John 

 Hunter, whose successor he is worthy to be, I mean my ex- 

 cellent friend Mr. W. K. Parker, P.R.S., and Hunterian Pro- 

 fessor in the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 



Alfred Newton. 

 Magdalene College, Cambridge, 

 2th August 1879. 



