112 Letters, Announcements, ^^. 



s. n. borealis, Br."), and another from Macao {'' L. occiden- 

 talis, Schleg. Cat. No. 2"), also belong to L. affinis, Reinh. 



Yours &c., 



Otto Finsch. 



Oardney, Dunkeld, Perthshire, 

 July 11th, 1878. 



Sirs, — I was extremely interested to see Mr. Dalgleish's 

 letter in the last volume of ' The Ibis ' (p. 382) mentioning 

 the recent occurrence of three specimens of the Stockdove, 

 Columba oenas, in this and the neighbom'ing county, as I have 

 been for the last month watching a pair of these birds breeding 

 on a rocky hill, called Craigmore, at the back of this house, and 

 was preparing to send a note to you recording the fact. The 

 nest is placed in a hole in a cleft in the rock, about a yard 

 from the entrance, well concealed by overhanging heather ; 

 and I only found it out by noticing the way in which the 

 ground was beaten by the old birds going in and out. There 

 are two young birds in it, that were hatched on the 27th 

 June, and are now (July 11th) nearly fledged. I intend try- 

 ing to rear one of these, and shall leave the old birds unmo- 

 lested, in hopes they may return another year. There can 

 be little doubt that the pair recorded by Mr. Dalgleish would 

 have bred if they had been left alone. I think there is every 

 probability that the pair here have already brought out a 

 brood, as my keeper has noticed them about the hill for the 

 last three months. 



Yours &c., 



A. B. Brooke. 



Boston, November 16th, 1878. 



Sirs, — I notice that you cite Mr. Ridgway's authority for 

 the presence of Podiceps cristatus in Franklin Lake (Rep. 

 Geol. Survey 40th Parallel, p. 642) as suggesting that my 

 " verdict may require reconsideration." 



All things in ornithology are possible; and negative opinions 

 are ever reversible. Nevertheless the fact still stands, that 



