JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY 



Part II.— PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 

 No. IV.— 1872, 



Notes on a collection of Bieds made in the Andaman Islands by 

 Assistant Suegeon G-. E. Dobson, M. B., dubing the months of 

 Apeil and Mat, — hj V. Ball, Esq., B. A. 



[Read 6th, received 16th August, 1872.] 



A short time ago Dr. Anderson placed in my hands for determination 

 a collection of birds, made in the Andamans by Dr. Dobson,* subsequently 

 adding two received from Mr. Homfray. 



The collection contains 184 specimens belonging to sixty-two species, of 

 which eighteen are new to the hitherto recorded avifauna of those Islands • 

 but they are for the most part migratory birds (Grallce) , whose occurrence 

 might safely have been predicated from their being known from the coasts 

 on both sides of the Bay of Bengal, and to some extent from Malayana. 



One species only is described in the following list as new, but there are 

 four others presenting certain peculiarities which may hereafter justify 

 their separation from the species under which they are now enumerated. 

 As these are represented by single specimens, I think it undesirable to 

 exaggerate the importance of what may ultimately prove to be only individual 

 variations from the type. The species are : Epliialtes spiloceplmlus, Blyth ? • 

 JBalceomis Alexandria Linn. ; Brachypodius melamocephalus, Gmel. ; Hallus 

 striatus, Linn. One result of the examination of this collection has been that 

 while it supports Col. Tytler's views as to the distinctness of certain Anda- 



* Mr. Wood-Mason and Dr. Dobson visited the Andaman Islands to collect for 

 the Indian Museum. The vertebrate portion of the collection was under Dr. Dobson' s 

 care. 



34 



