126 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 
been^ I believe, here in the Paris Museum; and it was by 
means of this example and the type of P. castanea (which I 
purchased from Mr. Gould, and which is now in the Zoolo¬ 
gical Museum at Stuttgart) that I became aware the two 
were the same species, and consequently placed Mr. Gould^s 
bird among the synonyms of P. duvauceli. From their appear¬ 
ance and general mode of coloration, we are fairly entitled to 
believe that P. duvauceli and P. macrolopha are as thoroughly 
distinct species as any that are to be found in the Phasianidse. 
Besides the chestnut on the back and sides of the neck, the 
flank-feathers, perfectly exhibited in the plate in my work, 
differ entirely from any I have ever seen in any specimen of P. 
macrolopha ; and I have examined a great many. Mr. Gould’s 
plate does not show these correctly: the chestnut colouring 
is exaggerated in its extent; and the black feathers with their 
light edges are almost entirely suppressed, a few only show¬ 
ing just above the leg. TemminclFs text, it is true, do^ not 
describe his plate accurately, but leans more to P. macrolopha ; 
but as he says ^^La gravure ayant ete faite longtemps, 
meme avant la publication des deux ovrages anglais ou se 
trouvent de tres-bonnes figures de notre oiseau,"’'’ it is most 
probable that wdien he wrote his description he took it from 
an example of P. macrolopha, instead of from the specimen 
figured—which was in the Paris Museum, and which he may 
not have seen for a long time, and was confounded in his mind 
with the newly figured P. macrolopha. However this may be, 
the types show that P. castanea and P. duvauceli are the same 
species, and quite different from P. macrolopha ; and I do not 
believe Mr. Hume will ever succeed in proving them all to 
be one species. 
D. G. Elliot. 
Paris, Dec. 8, 1877. 
Obituary of the late Mr. R. Swinhoe, F.R.S. 
Robert Swinhoe, whose premature death on the 28th of 
October last we all have to deplore, was born in Calcutta on 
the 1st of September, 1836. He was brought to England at 
