BIRDS OF UPPER PEGU. 41 



eyelids, plumbeous ; the edges, yellowish brown ; cere, dull green ; 

 bill, bluish black ; the eulmen and tip of lower mandible, 

 yellowish green ; feet, pale yellow ; claws, dark horny. 



"I shot a young one, nearly fully fledged, on the 21st May. 

 These birds do not appear to come out till it is too dark to shoot 

 them." 



Besides these several Owls, Captain Feilden says that he shot 

 an Owl resembling the Short-eared Owl, but only about two-thirds 

 of the size of that bird. I cannot conceive what this can have 

 been, but ornithologists in Pegu should be on the look-out for it. 



82.— Hirundo rustica, Lin. 



The specimens sent by Mr. Oates are so excessively bad that it 

 is impossible to speak positively in regard to them ; but they 

 appear to belong to the somewhat smaller race commonly known 

 as gutturalis, Scop. This is said to be distinguished by its much 

 smaller size and broader bill. The smaller size may be admitted, 

 but as to breadth of bill I am unable to see it. I have carefully 

 compared two adults from Amoy, China, with a large series from 

 various parts of India, Yarkand, and England, and I can perceive 

 no marked difference in the breadth of the bill. The Chinese 

 birds are doubtless smaller, and from what I can make out of the 

 Thayetmyo specimens they belong to the smaller race, which, so 

 far as I am in a position to judge, does not appear to be entitled 

 to specific separation. 



82 Ms.— Hirundo Tytleri, Jerd. 



The only adult sent — a female with both wings imperfect — 

 has the entire lower parts, including wing lining and lower tail 

 coverts, more rufous than they ever are in the females of rustica, 

 while the chestnut of the throat descends down on to the breast, 

 obliterating the central portion of the pectoral band. In the 

 adult males of Tytleri the lower surface is a rich chestnut bay ; in 

 fact, it is concolorous with the chin and throat, or nearly so ; 

 but in the females the lower parts, though much more rufous than 

 in the corresponding sex of rustica, are paler than in the male. At 

 present, it is rather a mystery where Tytleri, which is only seen 

 at Dacca for a month or two at a time, and that often after the 

 interval of some years, comes from. Mr. F. B. Simson, the late 

 Commissioner of Dacca, who first pointed out the species to 

 Dr. Jerdon, watched vainly for them for three successive years ; then 

 they came in great numbers, and he sent me a very large 

 series. A couple of months later they had entirely disappeared. 

 This was in the early part of the rains. It was in June also 

 that he first drew Dr. Jerdon^s attention to them. Now, 

 Mr. Oates, who did not, owing to the badness of his specimens, 

 distinguish the two species, remarks in regard to the Thayetmyo 



