121 
Letters, Announcements, 
The one, the larger, B. javanensis apud Blyth, with conspi¬ 
cuous white wing-spots, with the wing usually measuring from 
4'75 to 5 inches, and with a hill.from 1*3 to 1*4 wide at base, 
and from 1’37 to 1*49 straight from angle of gape to top of 
bill. I have twenty specimens of this form now before me. 
They vary a great deal in the tone of the upper and lower 
plumage—the upper surface from light dingy chestnut to a 
very deep rufous brown, and the lower surface correspond¬ 
ingly, though in a lesser degree; but all unmistakably belong 
to the same species. 
The other, the smaller— B. affinis apud Blyth, with, in three 
specimens out of four, no white spots on the wings, with 
wings varying from 4*28 to 4*6*, and with bills varying in 
width at gape from 0*95 to 1T3, and in length from gape to 
tip from 1*05 to 1*33. I have four specimens of this form 
before me; one precisely similar to the type. Three answer 
well to Blythes description; but the fourth has some spots 
upon the wing, and may, perhaps, notwithstanding the ex¬ 
treme narrowness of its bill and short wings, belong to the 
other form, which it closely resembles, as it has the bill 1*33 
in length, whereas in the other three specimens the bills are 
only 1*05, 1*1, and 1*2 in length. 
Setting aside this possibly doubtful specimen, I have three 
specimens, at any rate, of typical B, affinis, all shot in the 
neighbourhood of Malacca—wings 4*28, 4*5, and 4*6, with 
tails 4-4 and 4*5—answering in every respect to Blythes de¬ 
scription, and which, in my opinion, no one who compares 
them with either type or description can possibly doubt to 
be the form described by Blyth as B. affinis. 
I have also before me four chestnut B. castaneus; wings 5*2, 
5*25, 5*25, 5*5. It seems to me that difference in size alone 
is sufficient to separate the two; B. castaneus is really more 
than double the bulk of B. affinis ; but the whole character and 
colour of the plumage is also totally different. The plumage 
in B. affinis is of the same colour and character as that of 
B. javanensis apud Blyth; and both are clearly different, to 
any practised eye, from B. castaneus. The plumage of this 
^ Blyth gives the wing as 4*5. 
SER. IV.-VOL. II. 
K 
