Letters. Extracts, and Azotes. 383 



supplied of the habits of all these fine birds and of the 

 adventures of the author and his friends in their forays on 

 their nesting-places. Excellent and most characteristic 

 pictures are given of all of them. 



We are particularly pleased to have such full details as to the 

 nesting of the Black Vulture {Vultur monachus) and White- 

 shouldered Eagle [Aquila adalberti) . The latter is the Spanish 

 representative of the Imperial Eagle of Eastern Europe^ and 

 though its eggs are usually ^' white with a few faint 

 rufous niarks/^ Col. Verner, in February 1878, obtained some 

 eggs of this species " richly clouded with purple and 

 blotched with rufous -brown.^' So abnormal were they 

 that the late Henry Seebohm, who was a great collector 

 of birds^-eggs, tried to persuade Col. Veruer to alter the 

 labels on them to " Golden Eagle," eggs of which they 

 certainly closely resembled. But the Colonel was firm in 

 his refusal to yield to this suggestion, having himself taken 

 the specimens. 



We must now close our remarks on this excellent piece 

 of work. It is not, of course, a strictly scientific book, and 

 does not contain a learned description, even of a new 

 subspecies ! But we have read every word of it ourselves 

 and advise all who are interested in birds to do the same. 



XYII. — Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



We have received the following letters addressed "" To the 

 Editors of ' The Ibis ' " :— 



Sirs, — Two young birds of Parmoptila ivoodhousii lately 

 examined are younger than that figured in the last number 

 of 'The Ibis.^ The little wattles at the gape in these 

 specimens are very conspicuous, being quite white, while 

 the margin of the skin on which they are situated is black- 

 When the mouth is opened wide and the skin at the gape 

 stretched, the open mouth appears to be bordered on each 

 side by a row of white beads, strung, far apart, on a black 

 string. The inside of the mouth, also, which is whitish in 



