uυby Hβ photometry of UV-bright stars

uυby Hβ photometry is presented for 90 stars taken from an early version of the Carnochan & Wilson catalogue of stars that have very negative UV colours. Two have definite UV excesses, (HD 36629, and HD 81307). Four early-B stars have UV colours too positive for their visible classification, and β-indices that indicate higher luminosities than appear possible on galactic distribution grounds. Six late-B stars appear to have discordant flux distributions for which there are no obvious explanations. We suggest that the high population of subluminous stars derived by Carnochan & Wilson is the product of the statistical treatment used and the extreme patchiness in the interstellar absorption which gives rise to large numbers of little-reddened stars.