518 Letters, Announcements, S^c. 



All the eggs thus produced proved infertile prior to 1874, 

 in which year the three eggs were each found to contain a 

 young bird, but were not hatched in consequence of the old 

 female deserting them on the 2nd July, probably owing to 

 the great heat then- prevailing, and to the circumstance of 

 her not being furnished with water, with which she was con- 

 stantly supplied, and which she frequently used both for 

 bathing and drinking, during her incubation of 1875. 



Her first egg of the present year, which was laid on the 

 30th May, was successfully hatched on the 1st July; the 

 second egg was hatched on the 3rd, the third on the 6th, the 

 fourth on the 8th, and the fifth on the 9th ; but in this last 

 instance the young bird, unfortunately, died before its emer- 

 gence from the egg was fully completed. 



The young Owls, when first hatched, were covered with 

 pure white down, and continued in that state for about the 

 first fortnight ; but the one hatched on the 8th July unfortu- 

 nately died on the 14th. 



On the 15th July Mr. Fountaine noticed that the down on 

 the eldest of the young Owls w^as beginning to assume a dark 

 lead-coloured tint ; and by the 19th the three surviving Owlets 

 had all changed from white to dark lead-colour, though in 

 many of their plumelets the extreme tips still remain slightly 

 white. 



Mr. Fountaine left home on the 23rd July; and on his 

 return, on the 3rd of August, he observed that the young 

 Owls were beginning to show their quills and tail-feathers ; 

 but on the 4th the youngest of the three, in which these fea- 

 thers had just become apparent, also died. 



The remaining birds, the two eldest of the brood, have 

 thriven well, and give promise of attaining a healthy maturity ; 

 I visited them on the 12th of August, at which date they 

 were in a state of plumage much resembling the nestling spe- 

 cimen figured in Dresser's ' Birds of Europe.'' 



I am, &c., 



J. H. GURNEY. 



