Letters, Announcements, ^c. 295 



me that the eggs were " exactly like" that which I gave him, 

 and he adds that he obtained the first in the middle of Octo- 

 ber, so that those found by me must have been unusually late. 

 The trees are all at some distance from water ; but in a country 

 so flooded as that where they are found is, this can be of little 

 consequence to a bird so strong of flight. 



I have no doubt but that Ring-tailed Fish-Eagles and other 

 birds use the nests when the young Storks are hatched and 

 flown, I am, &c., 



C. HORNE. 



Innisfail, Upper Norword, Feb. 18, 1870. 



Chester Castle, 1st March, 1870. 



Sir, — I should like to add a little to the information pub- 

 lished by Mr. Allan Hume in regard to the breeding of the 

 Indian Stilt, Himantopus candidus {antea, p. 145). When I 

 was in Secunderabad during 1868, Lieut. Feilden told me that in 

 June 1867 he had found this bird breeding around a jheel 

 some thirty miles from that place, near the village of Toomul- 

 goodium, on the Masulipatam road, and that he had procured 

 and sent to Europe a considerable number of its eggs. He 

 noticed about twenty nests with eggs on this occasion. In 

 June 1868, not being well enough to go myself, I asked him to 

 visit the spot again ; and he did so, but on his return reported 

 that, owing to the excessively hot weather, the jheel had dried 

 up to half its size in the preceding year, and that not a single 

 bird of the species was to be seen. I met him last month at 

 his home in England, and he gave me eggs of this bird from 

 this locality, and also eggs of Lobivanellus goensis, taken from 

 the same place. As Mr. Hume remarks, there is no difficulty 

 in distinguishing the eggs of the two species. The fact of 

 H. candidus breeding one year at this jheel near Secunderabad 

 and deserting it the next is singular. Could the disturbance of 

 their nests have caused these birds to change their breeding- 

 quarters ? 



I hope Mr. Hume will note whether the colony at the Sool- 

 tanpoor salt-works breeds there this year. 



I am, &c., 



H. W. Feilden. 



