LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 351 



homalura, and the difficulty of the tail being removed, I person- 

 ally entertain little doubt that the two names represent the 

 same species. 



Then I observe that structurally, there is, so far as bills, pro- 

 portions of primaries, tarsi and feet are concerned, not the 

 slightest difference between Tytleri and melanocephala. As 

 regards length of wings, I think that those of Tytleri run a 

 trifle longer. Take the following dimensions : — 



G. melanocephala.— Wings, 175 ; 1-73; 1*68; 1'83 ; 1-75. 



C. Tytleri— „ — 1-8 ; 1-8;T81; 1"8; 1*77 ; 1*8- 



But now a curious fact has to be noticed ; clearly these two 

 forms are not seasonal stages of the same birds, the great 

 majority of my specimens having been shot at the same time. 



Still their absolute structural identity and both having al- 

 most always occurred in the same places from Dacca to Sud- 

 dya, strengthens the suspicion that, following Dr. Jerdon, 

 I expressed in my paper already referred to, and the note- 

 worthy point is that all my Tytleri are males, and both my 

 sexed specimens of melanocephala are females. 



Now, is it possible that the two forms represent the two sexes 

 of one and the same species ? 



I must leave this point to be elucidated by further investiga- 

 tion. 



I may add that I have recently received a specimen of C. 

 erythrocephala, (which is the second I have seen) from the Revd. 

 Mr. Fairbank, killed by him at an elevation of 6,000 feet on 

 Mount Nebo, in the Palnis, where he tells me that be saw two 

 other specimens of this same species. The specimen is a male, 

 and has the wing, 1*98. It agrees in plumage entirely with 

 my other specimen fully described, ante p. 94. 



Mr. John Darling, Junr., has just sent me a specimen of 

 Vivia inno??iinata, Burton, (Jerd. B. of I., I., 300) shot and 

 skinned by himself on the 8th of the present month, (July) 

 in the Wynaad. 



This species was formerly considered exclusively Himalayan, 

 and Dr. Jerdon remarks : — 



"This bird is found throughout the Himalayas and in 

 no other locality that I am aware of." 



Pere David, however, obtained it in Kokonor ; we have ob- 

 tained it from the Tenasserim and Khasia Hills, and here we 

 find it in the Wynaad, a fertile valley elevated about 2,500 

 feet above the sea, and lying between the Nilgheris and those 

 portions of the Western Uhats, overlooking Canuanore, 

 Calicut, &c. 



