120 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



Borup^ about 20 English miles to the south of Copenhagen. 

 In several of these breeding-places the nests are pretty often 

 robbed of their eggs by collectors. 



" The Black Stork arrives commonly early in April. Chicks 

 have been found just hatched, together Avith two eggs, in a 

 nest, as early as the 2ud of May ; but I believe this to have 

 been an exceptional case : some ten or twelve days later may 

 be considered the regular time. 



I will ask now, Has any member of the B. O. U. ever 

 visited a nesting-place of the Black Stork in any part of 

 Denmark? P. L. S. 



Geary's ' Asiatic Turkey.' — Mr. Geary has lately given us 

 a most instructive and interesting account of his ride through 

 Asiatic Turkey from Bagdad to Alexandretta"^. But when 

 he comes to ornithological topics Mr. Geary ceases to be ac- 

 curate ; we trust this is not the case in his remarks on more 

 general subjects. " Wild Turkeys," we are gravely informed, 

 " abound in the region between the Tigris and the Persian 

 hills. They are often hunted with Hawks. '^ Mr. Geary 

 thereupon proceeds to argue that " the notion that Turkeys 

 are of purely American origin must be given up ! " We 

 would ask, Did Mr. Geary see the " wild Turkeys " on the 

 Tigris? and is he sure they were not Bustards of some 

 species? Is it possible, however, that the Editor of the 

 'Times of India' does not know the difference between a 

 Turkey and a Bustard ? Again, at Kuffree, on his way to 

 Mosul, Mr. Geary " was awoke [lege awakened] by the con- 

 jugal discussions in progress between two Cranes, which had 

 a colossal nest perched on an angle of the surrounding wall.'' 

 The succeeding paragraphs show beyond all doubt that the 

 bird was no other than a Common Stork, which even a news- 

 paper editor ought not to call a Crane. After this we must 

 recur to the old proverb " Ne sutor ultra crepidam ! " 



* Through Asiatic Turkey : Narrative of a Journey from Bombay to 

 the Bosphorus. By Grattan Geary, Editor of ' The Times of India." 

 London, 1878 : Murray. 



