Letters, Announcements, ^c. 461 



puzzled to know why the Drongos persecute the Wagtails [Mota- 

 cilla capensis). On watching one closely, I saw him dart from 

 his post of observation at a Wagtail that had just caught a fly, 

 and, after dodging him at every turn, made him give up the fly, 

 which he carried oflT and devoured." This is very Lestris-\'\ke, 

 and a habit I never observed in the Ceylon Drongos. 



June 19th. I have just been up to see the last living 

 Chio7iis. He is most Hmnatopus-Yike in his motions, moving 

 with great swiftness and feeding on meat, which he holds down 

 between his feet and tears into shreds. He is very fearless, 

 and attacked the cats which came near him. The legs are livid 

 brown ; bill black, with a pink cere round the eye, the iris of 

 which is black or dark horn-colour. 



Some of the sealers, very intelligent men, told me this morn- 

 ing, in reply to my questions, that the Albatroses feed their 

 young, all the time they are in the nest, with squids. The young 

 birds remain in the nest till driven away by the old ones when 

 they want the nest again. They are usually in the nest ten 

 months, growing very slowly, but are very fat, and not at all 

 fishy. The men laugbed at the idea of their subsisting without 

 food, as suggested in a previous notice in 'The Ibis^ (1866, 

 p. 324). Yours very faithfully, 



E. L. Layard. 



Geologicul Survey Office, Calcutta, 

 July 17th, 1867. 

 Sir, — I think that all who have paid attention to the orni- 

 thology of India will be interested in hearing of the re-discovery 

 of Franklin's long-lost Cert hia spilonota{Salpornis spilonota,GiVQ.y, 

 Jerdon, B. Ind. i. p. 382). I have collected birds during the 

 past year around Nagpoor, and in the country to the south, 

 about Chanda and Siroucha ; and amongst other rarities I had 

 the good fortune to obtain eight or nine specimens of Sal- 

 pornis, most of them in good condition. They agree perfectly 

 with the somewhat meagre original description given by Major 

 Franklin (P. Z. S. 1831, p. 121), and with Mr. Blyth's fuller 

 account in 'The Ibis' for 1865 (p. 48). My first specimen was 

 killed about twenty miles south of Chanda ; but the birds there 



