328 Letters, Announcements, ^'c. 



identified as a native of Formosa, some confusion having oc- 

 curred between this species and another small horned Owl 

 which also inhabits Formosa, Lempijius hambroecki, described by 

 Mr. Swinhoe in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History ' 

 for 1870, vi. p. 153, to whose remarks I beg leave to refer. 



The type specimen of L. hambroecki is preserved in the Nor- 

 wich Museum, which has also acquired the Formosan specimen 

 of Scops japonicus here referred to. 



In the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1871, p. 343, 

 Mr. Swinhoe unites Scops japonicus with Scops sunia of Hodg- 

 son, which is a native of India. 



This view is also adopted by Professor Schlegel, in the ' Mus. 

 des Pays Bas,^ Oti, p. 20; but I have not had the opportunity of 

 examining a sufficient series of specimens to enable me to form 

 an opinion as to whether the Indian race is really identical with 

 that which occurs in China, Japan, and Formosa, and I there- 

 fore retain provisionally for the latter the distinctive appellation 

 of Scops japonicus. 



Brachyotus accipitrtnus (Gmel.). — This is, I believe, the 

 first instance of the almost cosmopolitan Short-eared Owl being 

 recorded from the Island of Formosa. 



2nd. I am desirous of ofi'ering a few remarks on the subject 

 of Aquila clanga of Pallas. 



The Eagle described by Pallas under this name at p. 351 of 

 his ' Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica ' is probably the large race of 

 Aquila navia, which is so frequently received in collections from 

 Sarepta on the Volga, and also from the countries adjacent to 

 the mouth of the Danube, and which only difl^ers from the 

 typical A. ncevia in its larger size and in having indistinct trans- 

 verse bars of dark grey on the rectrices and also on the inner 

 webs of the secondary wing-feathers. Pallas's description 

 appears by the measurements to have been most probably 

 taken from a male bird of this large race, to which the name of 

 Aquila clanga has therefore been a])plied by most English 

 ornithologists. 



I have hitherto been one of those who have thus used the 

 name of Aquila clanga; but as, on reexamining Pallas's original 

 Hrticle, it appears to me that he was not aware of the distjnc- 



