a12 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
wondered what service such could be to it. May not this bird 
have the power of secreting some substance so repulsive to the 
ants as to make them quit its neighbourhood? The first nest 
was evidently only just taken possession of, and the ants had 
not had time to vacate. Notso much as a solitary ant was 
about the second nest. You may be sure that 1 am keeping 
my eyes open for more information on the subject. I have not 
met with a single native who appears to know that any bird 
lays in ants’ nests. The smell about this bird is most persistent, 
and I think you will find that it still hangs about skins of 
several years’ old. On ruffling the feathers the smell is more 
strongly emitted. 
Mongphoo. J. GAMMIE. 
P.S.—Since this was written, I have, during this past month 
(Ma;), secured two more similarly situated nests of this Wood- 
ecker. 
[It will be remembered that Halcyou occipitalis similarly 
always lays in ants’ nests.—ED., 8. F.] 
Mr. Dresser, in the birds of Europe, hazards the opinion 
that my Sturnus nitens (Ibis, 1871, p 410; Lahore to Yarkand, 
250, Pl. XXIV) is possibly nothing but an old S. vulgaris. 
As I have seen some thousands of these birds, a hundred or 
more in the same day, all breeding and without the admixture 
of a single bird in any degree spotted, this hypothesis is 
untenable. 
It seems, however, that “nitens’’ being a synonym, of 
Brehms, for S. vulgaris, my name cannot, according to some 
European ornithologists, stand. I, personally, consider a name 
that is a synonym, extinct as regards the species it was so 
applied to and available for use in regard to any other species. 
To meet, however, the views of those who think differently, 
I propose the new name of ambiguus, for this very distinct, but 
apparently much disbelieved-in, Starline. 
(See also Blanford, Zool. Persia, p. 267.) 
ASO. a: 
End of Vol. IV. 
