1 92 1.] Letters, Extracts^ and Nutes. 349 



from all the Owls, except the Bara Owls, in having no 

 intermediate down between the casting of the white down 

 and the assumption of fall plumage." 



Incidentally, I may draw attention to other facts men- 

 tioned in the same article on the breeding of the Scops Owl, 

 which point out how widely the Scops differ from all other 

 Owls. Incubation only lasts twenty-three to twenty-four 

 days. The young, instead of remaining long in the nest and 

 being tended by the parents for a long time afterwards, are 

 just the reverse. Young hatched on 10 June left the nest 

 strong perchers on 1 July, and by 10 July were strong fliers 

 and independent. It will thus be seen that the young 

 Scops is full grown, full Hedged^ and independent at thirty 

 days old. All the other Owls are in the nest or, at any 

 rate, dependent on their parents for at least three months. 



E. G. B. Meade-Waldo. 



Hever, Kent, 

 6 February, 1921. 



The Status of Picus rubricollaris Baker. 



Sir, — In a letter dated January 7th, 1921, my colleague, 

 Mr. C. Boden Kloss, has asked me to point out that the 

 handsome Woodpecker described by Mr. Stuart Baker and 

 figured in the last number of ' The Ibis ' as Picus ruh-i- 

 collaris is wrou^^ly attributed to Siam, the localities in which 

 it was collected being, as a matter of fact, both in French 

 Laos, on or near the River Mekong. 



Further, the new "species" appears to be identical with, 

 or extremely closely allied to, a bird figured and described 

 by Oustalet twenty-two years ago as Gecinus rabieri (Bull. 

 Mus. d'Hist. Nat. 1898, p. 12 ; id. Nouv. Arch, du Mus. (4) 

 i. 1899, p. 255, pi. vii.) founded on two unsexed specimens, 

 considered males, but evidently females; from Tonkin. 



I have myself compared Mr. Baker's types with Oustalet's 

 figures and description, and have not the least doubt that 

 Mr. Kloss IS perfectly correct. The slight differences 

 between the actual bird from the Mekong. and the figure 



