88 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



in my Catalogue, published in 1849. Between that date and the 

 end of 1862 (when I left India) very considerable accessions to 

 the live collection which I superintended had been made from 

 time to time ; besides which I was quite as familiar with H. alhi- 

 cilla as with H. leucorijphus, and therefore do not believe that I 

 could possibly have mistaken one for the other. Whether or 

 not I am right in my conjecture about H. leucocepliaJus, I feel 

 confident that the Museum specimen referred by Mr. Hume to 

 the young of H. albicilla will prove, on examination, to have been 

 set up from a dry skin received from Europe. 



Now as to Haliaetus lineatus, as figured by Hardwicke. There 

 was, if there is not still, a juvenile specimen, in the Calcutta 

 museum, of PoHoaetus ichthyaetus in the spotted plumage, resem- 

 bling that of the young of Milvus govinda. Again, of two young 

 examples of Haliaetus leucoryphus it is stated by Capt. Hutton (as 

 cited by Mr. Hume) that " at the end of five weeks the young 

 ones exhibited as nearly as possible the plumage of the bird 

 figured by Hardwicke and Gray as H. lineatus." Now in a young 

 one of the latter species which I saw taken from the nest (which 

 contained along with it one addled egg), and which I kept alive 

 for several months until I shipped it, the colouring remained from 

 the first that of H. unicolo)' of Hardwicke. How are we to recon- 

 cile such discrepancies ? It is well known that the young of 

 Loxia curvirostra is usually lineated like a young Goldfinch or 

 Greenfinch ; but two or three years ago I was very much sur- 

 prised to see a living young Crossbill, with its feathers not fully 

 grown, the plumage of which was not at all lineated, but quite 

 resembled that of an ordinary mature female. That young 

 Crossbill, by the way, must have been hatched in England, to- 

 wards the end of December ! When ascending to rob the nest 

 of Haliaetus leucoryphus referred to, the lad I sent up the tree 

 (a high and very difficult one to climb) was certainly about to 

 be attacked by the female Eagle, when I fired at her and un- 

 fortunately only broke her leg, which hung down as she con- 

 tinued to fly around ; but neither she nor her mate approached 

 afterwards within reach of the gun. The bird was approaching 

 nearer and still nearer at every sweep, and the peril of the lad 

 seemed imminent, when I pulled the trigger in his defence. 



