258 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



XXV. — Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c 



e received the 

 Editors of ^ The Ibis:'— 



We have received the following letters addressed to the 



Northrepps, ] 1th December, 1886. 



Sirs, — The following extracts from a letter just received 

 from my friend Mr. Samuel Bligh^ of Catton, near Koslande, 

 Ceylon, will, I think, be of interest to ornithologists : — 



" An Eagle a friend shot about six miles from this place 

 and sent to me is a very interesting specimen, being the first 

 dark-plumaged bird of Limnaetus ceylonensis that I have 

 seen, which is very strange, considering the number I have 

 had in the flesh and the many that I have watched with my 

 telescope. 



" On skinning this specimen I noticed that the bones and 

 muscles were very mature and firm, the bones had even a 

 yellowish or old ivory look ; the eye was bright orange- 

 yellow ; the bill black, with plumbeous and olivaceous tinges 

 at the gape ; the cere blackish brown, tinged with olive ; the 

 toes dull ochreous yellow, with a tinge of olive. On the 

 whole, I think the bird comes under Col. Legge's description 

 of a bird three or four years old. 



^' In the stomach were the remains of a chicken, freshly 

 swallowed, and of another bird too much digested to identify. 

 The Eagle was in capital condition. 



" A very fine adult female of Huhua nipalensis, shot about 

 ten miles from hence, was lately sent me; its eyes were 

 brown, bill uniform horny yellow, with the slightest tinge 

 of green ; in the stomach were the remains of frogs and 

 crickets .'■' 



Yours &c., 



J. H. GURNEY. 



22nd February, 1887. 

 Sirs, — I am obliged by your suggestion of a reference to 

 Baird, Brewer, and Ilidgway, with respect to my note on the 

 breeding-plumage of Podiceps occidentalis. The reference 



