Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, &;c. 473 



hands such rare birds fall, that the contents of the crop, and 

 the bones of the skeleton, especially the sternum or breast bone, 

 should be preserved. 



I am, Sir, 



Yours truly, 



Frederick L. Currie. 



Mr. E. Fountaine sends us "a further note* on the nesting 

 oi Bubo maximus in captivity." 



Easton, Norfolk, June 13, 1859. 



A pair of Eagle Owls bred by me in confinement have lately 

 laid three eggs and hatched one young bird. This is the first 

 instance that any of the eggs of my birds, produced by indivi- 

 duals bred themselves in confinement, have proved fertile. The 

 female which laid these eggs is ten years old, the cock about 

 half that age. 



In a communication made to the Imperial Geographical So- 

 ciety of Russia, dated from a post on the banks of the Amoor in 

 the Ki-nghan Mountains in Sept. 1857, M. Radde, the naturalist 

 attached to the exploring expedition, mentions having met with 

 flocks of a " Bombycilla," which, from the description given, seems 

 to be Ampelis phoenicoptera of Temminck, hitherto only known 

 from Japanese specimens received through the Dutch ( see 

 Joum. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1858, p. 419). From the 'Comptes 

 Rendus ' of the I. G. S. for 1858, we learn that Prof. Radde had 

 passed the previous winter in the same place, and in the follow- 

 ing year was to explore the mountainous country of Tounkinsk. 



Mr. Gould, with his usual energy, has already succeeded in 

 obtaining from Siam a specimen of the splendid Pheasant named 

 by Mr. Blyth Diardigallus fasciolatus, which we have previously 

 alluded to several times {antea, pp.114, 201, 211). He has 

 kindly allowed us to examine it. It is certainly, in our opinion, 

 the same as the bird described by Prince Bonaparte as Diardi- 

 gallus prcelatus. If, however, as appears likely to be the case, it 



* See before, p. 273. 



