348 
[Ibis, 
Letters, Extracts, and Notes . 
The Nomenclature of Plumages. 
Sir, —In the January number Capt. Collingwood Ingram 
draws attention to an error in his paper (Ibis, 1920, p. 857), 
and states that it is important “ as it largely vitiates my 
definition of Mesoptile.^ Capt. Ingram was apparently 
unaware of my remarks in the f Bulletin 9 (vol. xxvii. 
p. 83), when I dealt with the four plumages of the young 
Eagle-Owl and pointed out that the Barn-Owl was excep¬ 
tional and that the third plumage was suppressed in that 
species. Further investigations have led to the conclusion 
that in other groups of birds we may also have three 
generations of plumage prior to the first adult dress. 
Mr. Pycraft, apparently being unaware of this fact, called 
these plumages protoptiles, mesoptiles, and teleoptiles, and 
I suggested that the generation immediately preceding the 
adult dress should be known as hemiptiles. My nomen¬ 
clature therefore agrees with Capt. Ingram’s in calling the 
“second generation of feathers” mesoptiles, but these do 
not immediately precede the adult feathers. Mesoptiles, 
as I understand them, are the generation preceding the 
hemiptites , which in the Passeres are what is commonly 
known as the juvenile plumage. It is expedient in this, 
as in other branches of Ornithology, to keep our nomen¬ 
clature as uniform as possible. 
J. Lewis Bonhote. 
Carshalton, 
8 January, 1921. 
Nestling Owls. 
Sir, —Captain Collingwood Ingram in his letter correcting 
the mistake he had made between the Barn Owl and Tawny 
Owl might have added the Scops (Scops giu) to the list 
of Owls which do not have any intermediate down between 
the first nestling down and the assumption of the complete 
feather plumage. This is recorded in the 4 Avicultural 
Magazine/ August 1899, page 160 : — 
“ The white down in the nestling is replaced by a plumage 
almost precisely resembling that of the adults, so they differ 
