Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 359 



Blyth identifies A. melanocephala^, with this bird. I subjoin a 

 short note on the specimen T^xocwveA, Ardea[Gorsachius) goisagi: 

 — Crown and occiput without crest, each feather marked along the 

 middle with black. Only the first quill-feather tipped with 

 white. Iris dark straw-colour. Bill bluish-black, base of its 

 lower mandible light greenish horn-colour. Cere and naked 

 skin of the face greenish -yellow, inclining to black on the eyelid. 

 Legs olive-yellow, soles dingy ; claws brown, the middle one pec- 

 tinated with broad teeth. Length about 19 inches; wing 10" 75 

 inches. Bill from forehead 1"63 inch, from gape 2"37 inches. 

 Tail, of twelve feathers, somewhat wedge-shaped, 4'5 inches. 

 Tarsus 2*7 inches. Middle toe and claw 2*25 inches. Outer 

 toe rather longer than the inner. Large testes on dissection. 

 The whole plumage of the bird about three parts advanced to 

 maturity. 



I am, &c., 



Robert Swinhoe. 



Sir, — I have a few remarks to offer upon Lord Lilford^s in- 

 teresting " Notes on the Ornithology of Spain,^"* contained in 

 your last Number. 



Reference is there made (p. 172) to two specimens oi Aquila 

 navioides received by Mr. Gurney from Spain, and placed in the 

 Norwich Museum. As I believe them to be the only authen- 

 ticated European examples of this bird existing in this country, 

 it is perhaps advisable that some further information should be 

 given of the manner in which they were obtained. In the course 

 of a hasty journey through Spain in 1861, of which I have given 

 an account in the second series of Mr.Galton's 'Vacation Tourists,' 

 I made the acquaintance of Dr. Reinhold Brehm, who was then 

 resident at Madrid, and had the pleasure of inspecting a fine 

 series of rapacious birds obtained by him in the vicinity of the 

 capital. Among them were skins of a supposed new species, 

 which he had named Aquila adalberti^. Two of these were 



* Apparently a lapsus calami for A. melanolophus . But see Mr. Blyth's 

 remarks in our Number for January (p. 38). — Ed. 



t They are described uuder this name by Dr. Ludwig Brehm in an 



