380 Letters, Announcements, 3fc. 



doubtedly the male and female of the one species ; and I am 

 very sorry that I stated so positively {cf. P. Z. S. 1877^ p. 107) 

 that they were not. 1 must, however, plead in extenuation 

 that, when my attention was drawn to the question, I re- 

 quested the young man (Cockerell) whom I employed as 

 collector to examine each bird carefully ; and he assured me 

 most positively that he had done so, and had marked speci- 

 mens of each as male and female. As I now, however, skin 

 all the birds myself, I think you may depend on both sex 

 and locality being in every specimen properly marked."] 



9th May, 1878. 



Sirs, — In May 1877 I wrote to you {vide 'Ibis,' 1877, 

 p. 397) respecting an immature Falcon captured off Socotra, 

 and living in the Menagerie of the Zoological Society, which 

 had been supposed to be an example of Falco peregrinator 

 {vide abis,' 1877, p. 149). 



I again inspected this specimen about a week since, and 

 found that its assumption of adidt plumage is now so far ad- 

 vanced, especially on the breast, as to leave no doubt of the 

 bird being a male of Falco peregrinus, and not referable to 

 any of the nearly-allied species from which it was difficult to 

 distinguish it in immature plumage. 



I am yours &c., 



J. H. GURNEY. 



London, SOtli May, 1878. 

 Sirs, — Through the kindness of Mr. Salvin I have had an 

 opportunity of examining the type of Bradypterus platyurus 

 of Swainson, which is now in the Museum of the University of 

 Cambridge. Dresser, in his 'Birds of Europe' (March 1876), 

 in his article on Cetti's Warbler, expresses the opinion, after 

 " critically examining and comparing Swainson's type of 

 Bradypterus platyurus," that " there is not a shadow of 

 doubt that it is nothing but Cetti's Warbler.'' As this spe- 

 cimen was the bird on which Swainson founded the genus 

 Bradypterus, the correctness of its identification becomes a 

 matter of some importance. Ornithological statute law pro- 



