62 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



he knew well, rather than to Euspiza ..which he did not know 

 so well ; or it may be that the natives, not good ornithologists 

 themselves, attach the name of 'Bori' to any bird which 

 feeds on grain fields in flocks and^ which is difficult to 

 scare, the word ' Bori' being simply the Sindi for 'deaf.' All 

 I can testify is, that I made particular enquiries on the spot, 

 and native opinion was unanimous in saying that it was Eus- 

 piza and not Ploceus which destroyed the crops in 1869. 

 However, there is a competent ornithologist in Sind now, 

 Captain Butler of the 83rd, and I have no doubt before a few 

 months are over the question of identification will be satis- 

 factorily settled. I must say that I do not think he will find 

 it ' a rare bird from a distant part of Central Asia,' and that Col. 

 Haig will find reason another time to refrain from theorizing 

 upon ornithological matters. I may mention that recently in 

 Kattywar I met with Euspiza melanocephala about 50 

 miles from the east coast, on the 29th January. The birds 

 I saw were doubtless the pioneers of the flocks on their way 

 from the Deccan to Sind. 



I will only add, for the information of your readers, that Col. 

 Haig's " wrong once more" refers to an assertion, he credits 

 me with having made at first, that the 'Bori bird' was a spar- 

 row. But he misquotes me. In my original report I restrict- 

 ed my accusation's to "birds" as I had not then identified the 

 species. Col. Haig has attributed to me a quotation given by 

 me from a report by a Revenue Officer (a native who does not 

 know English and whose Clerk translated his report for him) 

 that 'sparrows' had done the damage. But, for my own part, 

 I intentionally refrained from acknowledging that identification. 



H. E. M. James. 

 Bombay, 20;!/* February 1877. 



Sir, 



As Dr. Bowdler Sharpe expresses his wish for notices 

 of the minivets {Stray Feathers for '76, p. 205), I send the 

 following particulars of one shot at Comilla, Tipera, in February 

 1876. I identified it as P. speciosus, Jerdon, 271, but it differed 

 slightly from his description : — 



Length 9^ inches. 



Tail 4 



Bill | 



The red color was more fiery than vermilon : the wings had 

 less red than his description gives. The tail was entirely 

 red, the shafts of the tail feathers above were blackish for the 

 basal two-thirds, but no trace of black otherwise on any of the 



Wing 4 inches. 



Tarsus -h „ 



