Letters, Announcements, S^c. 81 



mised, iu consideration of the reward offered, to forward me 

 at Palermo in the course of the present year one or two indi- 

 viduals of the much desired species. The result of all this is, 

 that although very rare, the Francolin still existed up to the au- 

 tumn of 1869 in some parts of the island ; but if not already 

 extinct, it will inevitably be so in a very short time." 



I confess my inability to agree to my sanguine friend's de- 

 duction as to the existence of even " the last of the Francolins " 

 in 1869. If he had seen a feather of the individual in question 

 which he could pronounce to be undoubtedly that of a Francolin, 

 I should be reduced to silence; but I am not satisfied with the 

 hearsay evidence even of prefects and sportsmen. Lord Lilford, 

 in his able article (Ibis, 1862, pp. 352-356), enumerates no less 

 than six other species to which he has heard the term " Franco- 

 lino " applied ; of these (notably Otis tetrax and (Edicnemus cre- 

 pitans), several are found in Sicily ; and I can add Phasianus col- 

 chicus, which is now tolerably plentiful in some parts of that 

 island. It must be borne in mind that for some time prior^to 

 his visit. Professor Doderlein had enlisted in his behalf the ser- 

 vices of many well-known inhabitants of the district, one of them 

 a practical ornithologist at Girgenti, and that a veryJarge reward 

 had been offered ; yet, in spite of all this, the solitary specimen 

 obtained is forthwith devoured, not at a remote farm-house by 

 an ignorant peasant, but in the principal town, at a banquet at 

 which the attesting Prefect and sportsmen probably assisted. I 

 think it would be as well not to insist upon what, if true, is one 

 of the most barbarous acts of the latter half of the present cen- 

 tury. 



I am yours, &c. 



Howard Sauxders. 



London, December 14, 1871. 



Futtehgurh, N. W. P., 

 June 24, 1871. 

 Sir, — As very little seems to be known regarding the uidifi- 

 cation of the Whiskered Tern, Sterna leucopareia [Hydrochelidon 

 indica of Jerdon) the following notes may not be without in- 

 terest to some of the readers of ' The Ibis.^ 



SER III. VOL. II. G 



