Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, fyc. 473 
hands such rare birds fall, that the contents of the crop, and 
the bones of the skeleton, especially the sternum or breast bone, 
should be preserved. 
I am, Sir, 
Yours truly, 
Frederick L. Currie. 
Mr. E. Fountaine sends us “ a further note* on the nesting 
of Bubo maximus in captivity.” 
Easton, Norfolk, June 13, 1859. 
A pair of Eagle Owls bred by me in confinement have lately 
laid three eggs and hatched one young bird. This is the first 
instance that any of the eggs of my birds, produced by indivi¬ 
duals bred themselves in confinement, have proved fertile. The 
female which laid these eggs is ten years old, the cock about 
half that age. 
In a communication made to the Imperial Geographical So¬ 
ciety of Russia, dated from a post on the banks of the Amoor in 
the Ki-nghan Mountains in Sept. 1857, M. Radde, the naturalist 
attached to the exploring expedition, mentions having met with 
flocks of a“ Bombycilia,” which, from the description given, seems 
to be Ampelis phcenicoptera of Temminck, hitherto only known 
from Japanese specimens received through the Dutch (see 
Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1858, p. 419). From the f Comptes 
Rendus* of the I. G. S. for 1858, we learn that Prof. Radde had 
passed the previous winter in the same place, and in the follow¬ 
ing year was to explore the mountainous country of Tounkinsk. 
Mr. Gould, with his usual energy, has already succeeded in 
obtaining from Siam a specimen of the splendid Pheasant named 
by Mr. Blyth Diardigallus fasciolatus, which we have previously 
alluded to several times ( anted,, pp. 114, 201, 211). He has 
kindly allowed us to examine it. It is certainly, in our opinion, 
the same as the bird described by Prince Bonaparte as Diardi¬ 
gallus prcelatus . If, however, as appears likely to be the case, it 
* See before, p. 273. 
