ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS. 273 
inches long. As mounted, the bird with its head bent, measures 
24 inches; and in the flesh, measured with head and body 
in one line, would have fully reached the dimension of the 
original description or 26 inches. There is no original label 
on either bird. The primaries of the type are largely mot- 
tled with white on the basal portion when the wing is opened 
and looked at from below. There are a few very rufous new 
feathers appearing in the upper plumage. 
It is a decided example of Milvus melanotis, T. and 8., which 
term, together with Milvus major, Hume, become synonyms of 
Milvus govinda, Sykes. 
Milvus afinis, Gould; I examined some Australian examples 
and found them identical with our common Indian Kite. 
243 bis.—Certhia Hodgsoni, brooks. 
My distinction of four plain outer primaries holds good. In 
all the European ones I have examined, there are three plain 
primaries. Supposing one or two of the English species were 
found with four plain outer primaries, this would not. invalidaté 
a general rule, and a prevailing difference, even with an occa- 
sional exception, must not be set aside, Sita cashmirensis , 
Brooks, is considered by Mr. Dresser and others who have seen 
it to be agood species. I mention this as it was doubtfully 
referred to in birds of Europe. 
297.—Alseonax latirostris, Raffles. 
A. cinereoalba (T. and §S.); I have seen two more ex- 
amples from Japan,* and they do not agree with the Indian 4. 
terricolor, Hodgs. ‘The bill is somewhat differently shaped, and 
has manoh more black on the lower mandible; also the general 
tone of the plumage is much more ashy or greyer than that of 
terricolor. Mr. Swinhoe was wrong in uniting the two species. 
323 bis.—Erythrosterna parva, Meyer and Wolf. 
Indian examples are not to be separated from European ones. 
It appears that I was wrong in considering Indian examples 
of parva to be E. hyperythra, Cabanis, figured by Holdsworth, 
in winter dress. J. hyperythra must therefore be a hill species, 
which does not migrate to the plains of India in the cold 
weather. 
* A. latirostris was described from Sumatra—all we in India contend for is that 
latirostris is probably identical with terricolor, Hodgs, inasmuch as we get this 
terricolor not only all over India, but in the Andamans and throughout the’ Malay 
Peninsular to within a few miles of Sumatra. Whether the Japanese bird is distinct 
or not, does not alter the fact that lativostris of Sumatra is infinitely more likely 
to be identical with birds on the other side of the Straits of Malacca than with 
Japanese birds, and that therefore our Indian bird which is identical with specimens 
from the latter locality ought in all human probability to stand as latirostris.—Ep., 8. F. 
