290 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



bright birds must be, I think^ the young in their first plumage. 

 Towards the spring they have very little of the green and yellow 

 left, as they fade so much owing to sun and weather. A 

 s])ring-moult to a duller and browner plumage also takes place : 

 whether every bird moults in spring, or only the young ones, I 

 cannot tell; but I have specimens of many small birds as well 

 as of this species undergoing a spring-moult. I have sent Mr. 

 Hancock a specimen of Phylloscojms viridanus in which the 

 (^MiVZ-feathers are being changed. This bird I shot in the spring 

 of the year, and I was struck with the circumstance at the time. 

 As a specimen it was not worth keeping ; but it proved that 

 small birds do sometimes moult even quill-feathers in the spring. 



In a former letter (Ibis 1868, p. 351) I noticed a pale buff 

 Eagle which Mr. Hume and myself thought was the young of 

 Aquila ncevia. I have sent two of these birds to Mr. Tristram, 

 one in the pure buff plumage, and the other in a rich reddish- 

 brown one. That tliese two are specifically identical is shown 

 by the under surface of the wing, which corresponds in each, as 

 also does the colouring of the primaries ; but the wing of the 

 red bird does not agree with that of any other Eagle, so far as I 

 remember. I have lately shot another buff bird, a fine female, 

 which had killed and partly eaten an Egret. In this specimen 

 the cere and feet were deep wax-yellow. I am now sure that 

 this pure buff-and-grey plumage is a perfect one, that of an 

 adult bird, and that this Eagle is quite distinct from A. 

 ncpvia*. — It is as rare as that is common. I only get one or two 

 in a season ; and I could procure a hundred Spotted Eagles, I 

 think, if I wished. The dimensions of the buff" Eagle are 

 exactly those of ^. ncevia, it is quite as robust, and the sternum 

 of one I examined agrees in form with those of four of that 

 species. 



Mr. Blyth remarks (Ibis, 1866, p. 233) that the Indian 

 Neophron is not N. percnopterus, but another species — N. gingi- 

 nianus. The distinction of the dark bill does exist, but only in 

 certain localities in India. When at Delhi the other day I ob- 



* [Mr. Tristram informs us that the specimens sent to him by Mr. 

 Brooks certainly belong to A. ncevioides — a species not before recognized 

 as Indian. — Ed.] 



