288 
Lord Walden on Mr. Allan Hume’s 
cerning the range of P. schisticeps, his impartial critic is “ com¬ 
pelled to point out” {t. c. p. 18). Dr. Finsch states in gene¬ 
ral terms that it is found “ in ” (not “ throughout” as Mr. 
Hume or his translator of German erroneously renders “ im 
grossten Theile”) “the greatest part of the Indian continent;” 
hut he correctly enough gives in detail the range as known at 
the time he wrote. Its range is enormous; for it extends from 
Cashmere (Griffiths is said to have observed it at Pushut), 
along the lower ridges of the Himalayas as farEastern as As¬ 
sam^ and from Assam down to Pegu. Still, by some., Dr. 
Finsch's general statement might hypercritically be termed 
erroneous. 
Now follows Palaeornis calthropce, Layard; and the facts 
connected with its history up to 1868 are few and simple. 
Few, because previous to the publishing date of Dr. Finsch’s 
work only two naturalists had written about the species, 
namely Blyth and Layard. Blythes part was confined to the 
description, on behalf of Layard, of two skins sent by Layard 
to Calcutta (J.A. S.B. 1849, p. 800). One of these, with 
“ upper mandible bright coral, with a white tip; the lower 
reddish,” Blyth determined to be a male; the other, with 
“ both the mandibles dull coral with white tips,” he charac¬ 
terized as belonging to a female or young male. Later (op. c. 
1850, p. 234) mention is made by him of the receipt of three 
more specimens j but not one word is said about the characters 
whereby the sexes are distinguished, nor are they even de¬ 
scribed ; and I cannot find a passage in any of Blythes writings 
previous to 1868 where he defines the distinctions; and I be¬ 
lieve. this is all Blyth wrote or knew about this purely Ceylon 
species up to that date. Layard, in his “Notes on the Orni¬ 
thology of Ceylon” (Ann. N. H. (2) xiii. p. 263, no. 177), omit¬ 
ted all description of the bird, and merely gave an account of its 
habits. He said nothing whatever about the colouring of the 
sexes. This author never published previous to 1868 in any 
scientific work or elsewhere another word about P. calthropce. 
Nor does Dr. Finsch appear to have been more successful in 
his search for information, and he is most particular through¬ 
out his admirable and exhaustive work in giving all refer- 
