LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 169 
sitting on a jhow bush, and calling vigorously. I got 
quite close and watched him some time, so that there could be 
no mistake. He was about six feet off the ground. 
J. Burn Murpocsg, 
JACOBABAD, SINDH, Lieutenant RE. 
15th April 1881. 
Sir, 
In your remarks on the Barred-headed Goose, you 
write, “I have no record as yet of its occurrence in Tipperah, 
or any part of Assam.” 
On the 22nd,in steaming up the Brahmaputra, and when 
within about six or eight miles of Dhubri, the first Assam 
station, I saw a pair of Barred-headed Geese swimming in the 
river. I watched them for some time through a telescope, until 
the near approach of the steamer put them to flight. 
On the same day, and within two miles of Dhubri, I saw a 
Shelldrake, of which you also say that it has never been 
recorded near Assam. 
On the 26th, returning from Dhubri, and when about 15 
miles down the river, I noticed a wounded Shel/drake amongst 
a number of Brahminy Ducks, moving about on a sand bank 
just topping the water. Two miles further on 1 saw a couple 
sitting on the dry sand close to the waters’ edge. 
SAIDPORE, W. ForsyrTu. 
31st March 1881. 
Sir, 
At last I have succeeded in procuring the original 
description of Reguloides trochiloides, which I subjoin for the 
benefit of Indian ornithologists :-— 
Since it was a Calcutta bird that Sundevall describes, this 
pretty well settles the matter, for the common species at 
Calcutta is JV. flavo-olivaceus. But you have, I think, one of 
the white-bellied species in your museum, a Shillong one, so 
the identification is not absolutely conclusive. If that 
Shillong one is the white-bellied bird, the fact of its beiag 
the only Indian example seen, is in favour of Sundevall’s 
bird being the well known one. I believe there is no type to 
be found. There is the other question as to whether the 
white bellied form is distinct, or whether this species may not 
be very occasionally subject to a want of colour in the belly. 
But to me it appeared to possess, like Reguloides superciliosus, 
a silky shining white below, showing a different quality of 
feather as in the two Reguloides—humit and superciliosus. 
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