Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 7S7 



XLVIII. — Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 

 We have received the followiug letters, addressed to ''The 

 Editors of the Ibis '' : — 



Sirs, — A male specimen of the Andaman Teal {Nettion 

 albigulare) having just died at the Zoological Garden here, 

 and having been forwarded to the Museum, I have taken the 

 opportunity of examining the trachea, and find it to be 

 furnished with a well-developed bony bulb, very similar to 

 that of the Common Teal {Nettion crecca), as figured in 

 YarrelFs 'British Birds ' (4th edition, vol, iv. p. 391). 



Yours &c., 

 India Museum, Calcutta, F. FiNN. 



May 9tb. 



Sirs, — If Mr. C. E. Nipper^s identification of a Honey- 

 Buzzard in the cases in Somersetshire referred to by Mr. W. 

 P. Westell in your last issue (above, p. 515) is correct, we 

 have a remarkable instance of transference of habits. The 

 Honey-Buzzard has hitherto been found breeding during 

 the last days of May or June in well-Avooded districts, at no 

 great elevation, and always in trees. Moreover, I am not 

 acquainted with any authentic record of more than three 

 eggs of the Honey-Buzzard having been found in a nest, 

 and the clutch almost always consists of two. 



The Common Buzzard, which breeds regularly in a 

 neighbouring county, lays in April and May, breeds on clitf- 

 faces and in lofty situations, while about twelve per cent, 

 of the nests contain four eggs. Yours &c., 



Francis C. R. Jourdain. 



Clifton Vicarage, Ashburne, Derbyshire, 

 July 15th, 1901. 



Sirs, — My friend Mr. Arthur P. Page permits me to 

 send particulars of a Nutcracker shot by a gamekeeper near 

 Ilkley, Yorkshire, on the 5th of Jan., 1901, and purchased by 

 Mr. Page in the flesh on the same day. Unfortunately the 

 sex was not determined. On comparing this specimen with 

 the two Dutch examples sent by Heer F. E. Blaauw to 

 Dr. Sclater (c/'. Bull. B. O. Club, vol. xi. p. 48, Feb. 28, 1901), 



