STRAY FEATHERS, 
Vol. X.] MARCH 1883. [No. 5. 
Hotes on some Birds collected ow the Hilghiris and 
in parts of Gatynaad and Southern Mysore. 
By Witutam Davison. 
Tue following notes on a collection of birds from part of 
Southern India ought to have appeared long ere this, but a 
serious illness prevented my writing it before, and even now 
that .it is done, I feel that it is far from satisfactory. 
Finding myself on the Nilghiris in March 1881, and having 
some time to spare, it str uck me that it would be a good thine 
to try and procure specimens of Trochalopterum jerdoni, and 
clear up the question whether it really was distinct from 
1’. fairbanki, or not. 
I left Ootacamund for the Wynaad on the 23rd of March, 
and returned to Ootacamund on the last day of May, so that 
my trip occupied two months and a few days. 
I marched very slowly, and collected all the birds of interest 
I came across. I also kept a careful daily journal, in which I 
entered everything of interest, and, as far as I could, carefully 
noted the occurrence of birds of which I did not actually 
procure specimens. 
I have endeavoured in the paper to make the list of birds as 
complete as possible, but it is notwithstanding I kuow sadly 
incomplete, and this is due to several reasons. It is impossible, 
in the short space of two months, to get anything like a com- 
plete knowledge of the avifauna of as large a tract as that 
embraced in this paper. The time of year was bad. When I 
started the country was all dried up, and by the time I 
returned the rains had rendered travelling anything but easy 
or pleasant, added to which it was the most sickly time of the 
year as I found to my cost. 
However, I succeeded in the chief object of my journey, 
which was to procure T’rochalopterum jerdoni. I got twelve fine 
specimens, and though I did not procure them actually in the 
same locality as Dr. Jerdon did, I got them on the Brama- 
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