LetterSy Announcements, ^c. 143 



fully -fledged Co'els out of the nest," whereas he has " repeatedly 

 watched adult female Co'els feeding young ones of their own 

 species." Mr. Hume must surely mean the very reverse of 

 what he has written. 



On the 1st of the present month I had occasion to drive 

 into Mynpoony, where I put up with my friend Mr. Parcelli, 

 with whom Messrs. Sprenger and Brown were staying at the 

 time. After breakfast I observed a pair of Crows feeding two 

 young Coels (during the journey I saw the same thing fre- 

 quently), in different trees^ within ten paces of the house; 

 and the gentlemen I have mentioned^ whose attention I drew 

 to the matter (in connexion with Mr. Hume's version) , noticed 

 the same thing. I asked for a loaf of bread, and then for a 

 gun, as the opportunity was too good to be lost. A few 

 minutes later I held a post-mortem — to prove, I hope, for the 

 satisfaction of Mr. Hume, that the stomach of the Coel {which 

 is always fed by its oivn parents !) contained, in fact, a part of 

 the gizzard of the very Fowl we must have eaten grilled for 

 breakfast, garbage of various sorts, including small feathers, 

 and, lastly, pieces of the very bread we had been throwing to 

 the Crows ! ! 



I will not take upon myself to aflBirm that the young Coel 

 is never fed by its own parents ; but I should like to have 

 some better evidence regarding this feature in the economy 

 of this Cuckoo, as a constancy, than has been adduced by 

 Mr. Hume. 



Yours &c., 



Andrew Anderson. 



33 Oarlyle Square, S.W. 

 Nov. 21, 1874. 



Sir, — With reference to the birds of Hakodadi, a suspicion 

 crossed my mind that possibly I had made a mistake in iden- 

 tifying the Wren from Hakodadi with the Troglodytes fumi- 

 gatus, Temm., of Nagasaki, and that while the latter might 

 be the Wren of Southern Japan, the northern bird might be 

 distinct, and identical with T. alascensis, Baird. To clear 

 the doubt I sent a skin to Dr. G. Schlegel, and begged him 



