504 NOTES. 
I have known Larus fuscus since I was a child, and have shot 
and skinned scores and scores, and I have a series in my museum, 
apd no person with the faintest eye for color could possibly 
mistake the Mekran Coast birds that I have called occidentalis 
(the proper name may be cachinans, Pallas, for all I know) for 
fuscus of Europe. 
It must be remembered that I speak not on the strength of 
one immature bird, but on the basis of over 30 perfect adults. 
PropasseErR Morrayr (the unique specimen of which I 
recently examined), is a very doubtful bird; in shape of bill, 
and length of tail it seems to me precisely identical with 
Fringilauda sordida, Stol., but the wing is only 2°97. The 
specimen is very much damaged, but the head has a more 
lineated appearance; the feathers with dark brown centres 
and very pale edges; the back and scapulars on the other 
hand are more uniformly colored. One peculiarity is, that the 
chin and throat are nearly white, with little brown spots. There 
are two distinct wing bars. 
Masor Gopwin-AvsteEn remarks(A & M.N. H. Jan. 1876) :— 
“ Dr. Jerdon,in a paper on some birds from Upper Burmah in 
the Jdis for 1862, p. 19, describes, under the title Chrysomma 
altirostris,a bird he obtained at Thyetmyo, which I do not think 
has since been got there. Among the collection from the 
Dafla hills there are several skins of what can be no other 
than this species. Dr. Jerdon’s description and the size agree 
very well. ‘To Lord Walden is due the credit of the identification. 
It is curious to say Dr. Jerdon in the above paper twice (pro- 
bably writing fast, and using the term “ chur”) writes “ Bar- 
rampootra” instead of Irrawaddy, the above word being applied 
to the sandy islands of the former river; but there is just this 
possibility that the specimen really came from Assam, where 
I found it quite common in the grassy country of the Bishnath 
plain up to the base of the Dafla hills. It is very close to 
Pyctorhis sinensis, Gmel., as mentioned by Dr. Jerdon in the 
‘ Birds of India,’ Vol. II., p. 16, and approximates in its higher 
and shorter bill to the Paradowornis group. It is, however, not 
so gregarious, being only found two or three together. I found 
it a very hard bird to shoot, from its rapid dodgy flight in the 
grass, and the quick way in which it would hide at once; this 
is probably the cause of its not having been oftener noticed 
and collected. I have failed to discover where Dr. Jerdon’s 
original type of this interesting bird can now be.” 
