Letters, Announcements, &;c. 329 



tion between what may be called the smaller and larger races 

 of Aqvila ncevia, it is probable that he considered the descrip- 

 tion of his Aquila clanga applicable to both ; and I would 

 therefore suggest the propriety of using for the larger and cer- 

 tainly distinct race, of which the head quarters appear to be 

 about the mouths of the Volga, the specific name of " orientalis " 

 proposed for it by Cabanis in the 'Journal fiir Ornithologie/ 

 1854, p. 369 (note). 



It should, however, be observed that Aquila orientalis must 

 not be confused with another nearly allied, but yet larger, Eagle 

 which inhabits the country of the Amoor river, and to which 

 Mr. Swinhoe has given the specific name of amurensis. Vide 

 Proc. of the Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 338. 



3rd. I am also desirous of calling attention to what appears 

 to me to be an accidental error in Dr. Jerdon^s " Supplementary 

 Notes" in 'The Ibis' for the present year at p. 139, where, 

 under the head of Oreocincla dauma, it is stated that the Thrush 

 obtained in Formosa by Mr. Swinhoe, and named by that 

 gentleman 0. hancii, is now considered by him to be identical 

 with 0. dauma ; but in Mr. Swinhoe's paper on the Birds of 

 China in the Zool. Society's Proceedings for 1871, at p. 368, 

 he give O. hancii as a synonym of the well-known "White's 

 Thrush," O. varia (Pallas) j and the latter identification was also 

 communicated to me in a letter with which Mr. Swinhoe favoured 

 me on the subject, 



4th. It is well known that the South-African Ostrich is now 

 largely kept in the colony of the Cape of Good Hope in a semi- 

 domesticated state for the sake of its valuable plumes. 



I have recently seen a letter from a gentleman engaged in 

 that colony in this new pursuit of " Ostrich-farming," which 

 gives some particulars respecting the incubation of his tame 

 Ostriches (twenty-seven in number) that appear to me worthy 

 of being recorded in the pages of ' The Ibis.' He says, " Two 

 females generally lay in one nest, and sit from 7 a.m. during the 

 day, the cock keeping guard somewhere near ; at 5 p.m., as re- 

 gularly as possible every night, the hens leave the nest, and the 

 cock takes his turn. They lay more eggs than they can sit 

 upon : there arc often between forty and fifty in a nest; so there 



