392 
Letters, Announcements, tyc. 
was obtained from Mr. H. Nevill; so were some of my spe¬ 
cimens, and another from Malabar is in the British Museum. 
Yet Mr. Hume remarks, “ I do not think that the learned 
editor in question should have so positively asserted what he 
had no means of verifying ” (Str. F. 1876, p. 377). If Mr. 
Bourdillon’s Travancore examples specifically differ from the 
Ceylon B. moniliger, they, not the Ceylon bird, require a new 
title; but the male, as described by Mr. Hume, but slightly 
differs from a Ceylon male of B. moniliger in my collection. 
I trust, Sir, whether my argument appears to you convincing 
or not, that it will enable my fellow Members of the B. O. U., 
and whose favourable opinion I prize, to judge of the scien¬ 
tific value of the criticism contained in the following reckless 
passage Mr. Hume has ventured to print (/. c.) :—“ It does 
seem a pity that such very erroneous assertions [that B. 
castaneus—B. affinis, and that B. punctatus — B . moniliger ] 
“ should be put forward so authoritatively without the re¬ 
motest apparent grounds.” Is it uncharitable to suggest that 
“ grounds ” which may not be apparent to ]\Jr. Hume may 
yet be self-evident to any ornithologist who takes the trouble 
to acquire the rudiments of the subject on which he professes 
to instruct others ? 
I remain yours, 
Chislekurst, May 16, 1877. Tweeddale. 
P.S. Mr. Blanford (1. c .) mentions a specimen of an adult 
(B. sp.) in Mr. Hume’s possession, ex Sikim, “closely agreeing 
in general coloration with the figure of Otothrix hodgsoni ,” as 
being “ marked female.” Is this the same example alluded 
to by Mr. Hume (op. cit. ii. p. 349), the only one of his four 
“ noted as a female, with a note of interrogation,” by its col¬ 
lector, Mr. W. Mason ? If it is not, we have some evidence 
of dimorphism in B. affinis. If it be the same individual, 
the note of interrogation must have escaped Mr. Blanford^s 
attention.—T. ______ 
Sirs, —Mr. W. B. S. Balston has kindly called my atten¬ 
tion to an account of the Petchora expedition of our friends 
Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie Brown which lately appeared in 
the correspondence of the f Novoe Yremya 9 or ‘ New Times > 
