3G j\lr. A. R, Wallace's Remarks on the Value of 



Gelochelidon anglica. 

 Sylochelidon caspia. 



Both species are common in Lower Egypt ; and occasionally 

 the Gull-billed Tern was seen in Nubia. 



Xema ridibundum. 



Is very plentiful in Lower Egypt during the subsidence of the 

 river in November, especially about the sluices, where the natives 

 catch small fish. There it and the Black Kite may be seen in great 

 numbers, darting on the banks where the refuse of the fish had 

 been thrown. 



Larus fuscus. 



The Herring-Gull is common on the river below Beni Hassan. 

 I saw a solitary individual near the Second Cataract ; but it is 

 not by any means so frequent in the upper country. I have seen 

 Larus canus on wing near Cairo. A little Diver was occasionally 

 noticed in the river, even as high as Thebes, and the same species 

 is very common in the marshes about Alexandria. 



n. — Remarks on the Value of Osteological Characters in the Clas- 

 sification of Birds. By Alfred B. Wallace. 



May I beg for a few lines to correct a statement of M. E. Blan- 

 chard, and to show that it is not by osteology only that correct 

 prmciples of classification are to be arrived at ? In his * Re- 

 cherches sur les Caracteres Osteologiques des Oiseaux,' p. 75, 

 M. Blanchard states that "one of the best-characterized and best- 

 defined groups in the class of Birds has been misunderstood by 

 all naturalists except one only (M. FHerminier)." He then 

 goes on to explain that this group consists of all Passeres except 

 the families now generally classed as Fissirostres (including the 

 Hummers, Swifts, Hoopoes, and Hornbills) and Scansores (in- 

 cluding the Barbets and the Musophagidce) . M. I'Herminier, it 

 seems, had founded this great group more than thirty years ago 

 from an examination of the sternum, but his work had remained 

 almost unknown to ornithologists; and M. Blanchard has now 

 by his own more extensive researches established the same fact. 

 Previous, however, to M. Blanchard's publication, and without 

 having ever seen or heard of M. PHerminier's work, I had 



