32 G n-otes. 



precisely the same size as those of the specimens which I shot 

 at the Nicobars, while the wings are perhaps somewhat longer 

 (in an adult male 13*7 5). 



It is probable that these should be assigned to macrorhynchus, 

 Temminck, but as I have already remarked (S. F., Vol. II., 

 p. 243, and Lahore to Yarkand Ornithol., p. 85), I do not 

 myself see how these Bow-billed Corby s are to be separated ; 

 they differ solely in size, and every gradation of size seems to 

 occur. 



A. 0. H. 



lotes. 



It will be remembered that the only nesting place of the 

 Stilt that I have yet been able to discover in Upper India is 

 at the Sooltanpoor Salt Works, some 30 miles south of Dehli. It 

 is curious that in the neighbourhood of these Works, Lieutenant 

 C. Bingham has discovered that Mevops JEgyptius breeds in num- 

 bers. This gentleman has kindly sent me specimens of both 

 eggs and birds, and he remarks that, while occurring at the 

 close of the hot season and beginning of the rains everywhere 

 about Dehli and the country south thereof, they are literally 

 in hundreds about Sooltanpoor, where he failed to notice a 

 single specimen of M. philippensis. 



In the autumn of 1871 Captain G. F. L. Marshall shot a 

 number of young birds of this species in the Allygurh and 

 Mynpooree districts, and we then thought that these must be 

 exceptional stragglers, but subsequent information shows that 

 large bodies of this species invade Sindh in April, and pass 

 thence right through Rajpootana reaching as far north and east 

 at any rate as Dehli. Throughout this whole tract they breed 

 during the end of April, May, June and July, according to 

 season, and during the autumn parties, chiefly composed of 

 young birds, are to be met with throughout the Doab, if not 

 also in Oudh and Rohilcund. I have now received a large 

 series of these birds (mostly young ones, but two sent by Lieute- 

 nant Bingham are old adults) from Sindh, Sambhur, Dehli and 

 Sooltanpoor and the Doab, and having compared these with 

 Le Vaillant's plates, 6, 6 bis and 16, and Swainson's plate in the 

 Birds of Western Africa ( together with his description) it 

 seems to me clear that all Le Vaillant's 3 plates represent 

 stages of this same bird, for I have specimens corresponding 

 well to each, and that although his plate is bad, the bird des- 

 cribed by Swainson is also the same. The bird figured by Bree 

 as Merops persica, Pallas, is also the same bird. Plate No. 6, 



