chiefly io the Birds of India. 159 



pears to me^ from his description of it, to A. nisus* ; and with 

 regard to his remark that "one of three originals" in the 

 Indian Museum is lost, I beg leave to assure him that there 

 never were more than two examples of A. nisoides in the Museum 

 formerly under my charge, the third specimen referred to having 

 belonged to Lord Walden. In the course of my numerous de- 

 scriptions of birds in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society ' and 

 elsewhere, not a few specimens are noticed that did not belong- 

 to the Society. 



With respect also to the species of Spizaetus noticed in the 

 ' Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal' for August 1868 

 (p. 195), I may remark that there is no such bird as Lim- 

 naetus alboniger of Horsfield, and that Falco caligutus of Raffles 

 (as can only be determined by his drawing of it in the Library 

 at the India House) is not identical with Spizaetus alboniger, 

 nobis, but with S. limnaetus, which latter is common to Ben- 

 gal, Indo-China, the Malayan peninsula, Sumatra, and Java, 

 whereas S. alboniger is peculiar to the Malayan countries. The 

 "Limnaetus" unnamed {loc. cit.) is probably the young of S. 

 alboniger {S. nanus, Wallace, Ibis, 1868, p. 14, pi. 1). <Sf. cir- 

 rhatus of the Indian peninsula and also of the Himalaya is like- 

 wise found in Java, as before suggested by me (Ibis, 1866, 

 p. 242), being exemplified by one or more Javan specimens in 

 the Leyden Museum, which I have examined with Mr. Gurney. 



The nestling Aquila pennata (J. A. S. B. 1868, p. 16; vide 

 Ibis, 1868, p. 305) is distinctly stated to be " underneath brown, 

 with a large white shoulder-spot." I have always considered this 

 to be the plumage of immaturity, and the white-breasted speci- 

 mens to be adults (c/. Ibis, 1867, p. 183), as likewise in A. bonel- 

 lii, whereas in the Spizaeti the white-breasted individuals are in 

 their first plumage. The subcrested form oi Hieraetus, Kaup, to 

 which all the Indian examples which I obtained (and one near 

 Maulmein) are referable (Ibis, 1866, p. 241), is probably iden- 

 tical with H. morphnoides, Gould, which, in Australia, is consi- 

 dered to be a rare species ; for I incline to doubt the constancy 



* Since writing the above, I find that Herr v. Pelzehi is of the same 

 opinion (Ibi.^ 1868, p. 306). 



N 2 



