504 letters to the editor. 



Sir, 



Little did I think, when writing to you, about the occur- 

 rence of Woodcocks in Bagdad and North Canara, Stray 

 Feathers, Vol. V., p. 140, that I should shortly have the pleasure 

 of adding the species to the Sind list, but such has been the case. 



I was taking a stroll yesterday morning (4th November) 

 through the Lyarree Gardens, about two miles from Karachi 

 when a Woodcock [Scolopax rusticola, Lin.) that had evidently 

 just been flushed by some natives who were working close by, 

 flopped lazily past me and settled in a field of lucerne grass 

 about ten yards from where I was standing. After turning 

 round and round two or three times, as if trying to get out of 

 the sun, it rose and flew towards some Guava trees about twenty 

 yards off, sitting under one of them. There was no cover, ex- 

 cept some short grass insufficient to hide the bird, and I walked 

 up and shot it. 



It w T as not fat, but in fair condition and in lovely plumage, 

 turning out subsequently a superb specimen. 



Measurements taken in the flesh as follows : — 



Sex. L. W. T. B at f. B fr. g. Exp. Weight 



ozs. drams. 

 «? 13| 7f 3| 3 2| 24 8 9£ 



Legs and feet plumbeous flesh ; bill fleshy brown, tipped 

 dusky; irides dark brown. 



It was doubtless an exhausted bird in course of migration. 



E. S. Butler, Captain, 



2>2>rd Regiment. 



Mb. Brooks insists that I must give a name to the Heguloides which 

 had of late years always done duty for viridipennis, until I pointed out 

 {ante, p. 330) what this latter really was. Of this at present unnamed 

 Bpecie c . I quoted Mr. Seebohm's full description, loc cit. I was unwilling 

 to give a new name to this race or species, because it runs so close to 

 trochiloidet, that I was not sure that it could be always separated from 

 this. Mr. Brooks, however, insists that it can be so separated, that there is 

 a constant difference in the proportions of the primaries, and that I must 

 name it, and I, therefore, though somewhat reluctant^, propose for it the 

 name of Phylloscopus (Reguloides) flavo-olivaceus. 



Note that the publication of this number has been delayed, and, 

 although intended to appear on the 1st of November, will not actually issue 

 until December. 



Erratum. 

 Page 257, 'ine 34, for " from 76 to 7*8" read " from 4 6 to 48." 



End of Vol. V. 



