230 Mr. C. A. Wright's Fifth Appendix to a 



head with a stoue. On the following clay, at aljout noon, he 

 saw it swim ashore, in the same part of the Salini, so ex- 

 hausted as to allow itself to be taken by the hand. The wind 

 had been blowing strong from the westward. The species 

 was quite new to the shooters at the Salini ; nor had the 

 market-man seen any of the kind before. 



278. Alca torda. 



I have lately had an opportunity of examining the specimen, 

 taken many years ago, which gave rise to the admittance of 

 the species Uria troile into the Malta list. It turns out to be 

 a young Razor-bill, Alca torda, which name should be sub- 

 stituted for the erroneous one (Ibis, 1864, p. 152). I may 

 add that Alca torda has been occasionally observed in Sar- 

 dinia {Salvado7-i^) and Sicily {Doderleinf). 



The following are some additional notes regarding rare and 

 occasional visitors : — 



Aquila chrysaetus. On Sunday, 16th Nov. (1873), Dr. 

 Gulia drove up to my house at Sliema to say that a very large 

 Eagle had been shot two or three days ago, that he had closely 

 examined it and determined it to be a Golden Eagle. He 

 also told me that the person into whose hands it had fallen 

 intended to have it preserved. I lost no time in making 

 further inquiries, and on the following morning crossed over 

 the two harbours to Cospicua, with the view of obtaining 

 permission to examine the specimen, and, if possible, securing 

 it. Judge of my disappointment and, I must add, disgust 

 on ascertaining that the owner had, on the Saturday morning 

 previous, consigned it to a passing scavenger; and all my 

 efforts, which were not a few, to trace its remains were un- 

 availing. From some hasty notes taken by Dr. Gulia when 

 the bird was left with him for a short time, no doubt exists 

 in my mind that he was right in his diagnosis ; but it is a 

 thousand pities that so grand a bird should have been thus 

 miserably lost, the more so as the species has only once before 



* Op. cit. (' Uccelli di Sardegna '), p. 134. 



t ' Avifauna del Modenese e della Sicilia/ per Pietro Doderlein, &c. &c., 

 p. 276: Palermo, 1873. 



