328 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
it to be a male I got the boy to rip open its stomach, when, 
to my astonishment, I found it wasa female. Ihad it skinned 
just to let you see that the sex does, at times, assume the 
male plumage. It was very thin, but did not appear to be 
sickly. It had robbed the nest of Sturnopastor contra of a 
young one. 
J. R. Cripps. 
Borsam, Assam. 
{I am puzzled with this skin. It seems to me too small for a female— 
wing barely 14 inches; tarsus, 3°17 at the outside. Most of our ascer- 
tained young females are larger, and this must be a very old bird. The 
plumage only differs from that of the normal adult male in having the 
winglet, primary greater coverts, and secondaries a dark iron grey instead 
of a more or less silvery grey, but I have seen males showing this same 
variation-—Ep., S. F. 
Sir, 
AnoTu_Er bird to record from Sind, viz., 631.—Zosterops 
palpebrosus.* Mr. J. Cumming shot it in the Lyaree Gardens, 
and sent it to meto-day. It isa young bird, and I have no 
doubt, after seeing the eggs collected by Mr. Cumming last 
year at about the same time, that the species breeds in Sind. 
The eggs shown to me as having been taken last year are a 
very pale blue. The specimen answers Jerdon’s description 
very well, except that it is about one-eighth smaller in size. 
The wings too are smaller, the under wing-coverts and abdomen 
bare. 
J. Murray, 
Curator, Frere Museum, 
Karachi. 
* §8ee for distribution in Western India, III., p. 491.—Ep. S. F. 
