250 Mr. C. A. Wright's Third Appendix to a 



quite sure without a closer examination. " There is many a 

 slip between the cup and the lip," and I had to experience the 

 truth of this adage. My Swan had tumbled into Quarantine 

 water ! And I had not calculated the immense risk that touch- 

 ing its now contaminated body would, in the opinion at least of 

 the Guardiano di Sanita, entail on the health of the popula- 

 tion of these islands. I was therefore reluctantly compelled to 

 leave my much-prized specimen to the tender mercies of the 

 health-officers. Of course, nothing more was heard of it. Some 

 sharp fellow had doubtless appreciated Swan's flesh, and carried 

 it off for his Christmas dinner ! 



In my endeavours to trace the plunderer, anxious to put the 

 question of the species of our visitor beyond doubt, I learnt of 

 a Swan having been killed two days previously, on the 21st of 

 December, at Salini, on the north coast of Malta. It was alone 

 when killed, having probably separated from the main flock. 

 Too late to secure the skin for my collection, the bird having 

 been already plucked and trussed for the spit, it was some 

 satisfaction to ascertain the species, from an examination of the 

 head, which the cook, after a diligent search in the dustbin, 

 presented to me. It confirmed my first impression, and enabled 

 me to record, from personal observation, the Mute Swan 

 [Cygnus olor) among our occasional visitors. 



I take this opportunity of remarking on a professed list of 

 'Birds found in Malta/ by Mr. W. Grant, in 1866*, contain- 

 ing some forty or fifty (! ! !) names not included in my cata- 

 logue of 1864, nor in the appendices which have since appeared 

 in ' The Ibis.' Amongst the novelties are the Grey Partridge 

 {Perdiw cinerea) and three other Partridges, or Patridges, as our 

 author insists upon spelling the word, as likewise Perdrix in- 

 stead of Perdix, on the principle, I suppose, of compensation. 

 To these are affixed the letter " R ", signifying rare. We also 

 have the Francolin reintroduced, with "RR" attached to it, 

 signifying, we ai'e told, very rare. Very rare, indeed, we should 

 think ! Passer domesticus, a phantom which we thought had 

 long since been laid (Ibis, 1864, p. 53), is once more resusci- 



* [Cf. Ibis, 1867, pp. 289, 240.— Ed.] 



