472 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



In the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal/ part ii. no. 1, 

 1872, p. 76, Mr. W. E. Brooks informs us that " the males of 

 Erythrosterna parva, in the breeding-plumage, have the red on 

 the breast bordered on each side by a stripe of velvet black. In 

 the winter the black border disappears," &c. This somewhat 

 startling fact would have, anyhow, inclined me to conjecture that 

 Mr. Brooks had met with another species; but, fortunately, I have 

 lately had an opportunity of examining one of Mr. Brooks's 

 specimens of his so-called E. parva in nuptial plumage. It turned 

 out to be Siphia [Menetica) hyperythra, Cabanis (Journ. fiir Orn. 

 1866, p. 391), ex Ceylon, where other examples have been since 

 obtained by Mr. Holdsworth. It may be added that the species 

 seems to be only a winter resident in Ceylon, but that it never 

 loses the black pectoral stripes. 



Yours, &c., 



Walden. 



Chislehurst, Aug. 27th, 1872. 



Sir, — Mr. Andrew Anderson, in the first part of his valuable 

 paper " On the Raptoi'ial Birds of India," published in the ' Pro- 

 ceedings of the Zoological Society of London ^ for 1871, p. 685, 

 calls attention to the difference observed by himself and by 

 another zealous student of Indian ornithology, Mr. W. E. Brooks, 

 between the form of the nostril in Aquila imperialis and in A. 

 ncevioides. I must admit that, for one, I have not hitherto paid 

 sufficient attention to this mode of diagnosis between these two 

 species, — an omission which has partly arisen from the difference 

 being less obvious in specimens that have been long prepared 

 than in those in which the parts in question are recent and less 

 desiccated — the fact being that, in specimens of A. ncBvioides 

 which have been prepared many years, the shape of the nostril 

 becomes modified by long drying, and approaches much nearer 

 to that of A. imperialis than is the case in recently killed A. 

 ncevioides. 



My present object in adverting to this subject is to correct an 

 error contained in a letter addressed by myself to ' The Ibis' on 

 February 8th, 1871, in which I mentioned tliat two Spanish 



