Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 115 



" 3. Malherbe (Orn. Sic.) gives a copy of L. Benoit, but 

 adds as a locality ' Cyprus.' 



" Negative authorities. 



" I. Not found in the Cyclades (Erhardt, Wirbelthiere der 

 Cyclades). 



" 2. Not found in Algeria (Loche). 



" 3. Not in Greece (Muhle). 



" 4. Not in Corsica (Malherbe). 



" 5. Not in Sardinia (Gaetano Cara, Orn. di Sardegna). 



" 6. Not found in Russia (Nordmann, Voyage de Demidoff, 

 1840). But the same authority adds^ ' It does occur on the S. 

 and S.W. coasts of the Black Sea, in European Turkey, and in 

 Asia Minor.' " 



M. E. Verreaux writes : — " My brother Jules's opinion agrees 

 with mine, ihaiFrancolinus vulgaiHs has become extinct in Europe, 

 and that the specimens scattered about in commerce at this time, 

 and sold as European, come from India, and are of a distinct 

 species, viz. F. asice, Bp. Formerly, there can be no doubt that 

 the true F. vulgaris was found in Sicily, Greece, and Turkey ; 

 but I am not aware that a single specimen has been brought 

 from these localities for more than thirty years." 



Lord Lilford seems to deny that Cyprus and the Grecian 

 Archipelago are European localities. I think, however, we must 

 retain the Mediterranean islands, at all events, in the Ornis of 

 Europe, whatever geographers may say to the contrary. 



Sicily is quite, and Sardinia nearly, as near to Africa as Cyprus 

 is to Asia ; and how are we to divide the Archipelago ? 



Prince Charles Bonaparte, though he considered the Cyprian 

 Francolin distinct from the Sicilian species, having described it as 

 F. tristriatus from three bands of white on the side of the head, 

 nevertheless admitted it as a European species both in his 

 ' Tableau parallelique de I'Ordre des Gallinaces ' and in his 

 Catalogue, published in 1856, with the additional localities of 

 Crete and Candia. 



The bird which I have figured is, however, the Francolinus 

 vulgaris, Stephens, and was obtained by Mr. Tristram in Cyprus. 



The wide-spread circulation of 'The Ibis' on the Continent 



i2 



