Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 565 



XXXVI. — Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^-c. 



AV^K have received the following letters^ addressed " to the 

 Editors of ' The Ibis ' " :— 



Sirs, — In reply to Count Salvadori's letter iti the last 

 number of ' The Ibis/ I think the following remarks will 

 prove of interest. 



The British Museum collection contains only five fully 

 adult red-billed examples of Oriolus monachus : in all these 

 birds the subterminal black band across the outer tail- 

 feathers is either very faintly indicated or obsolete. Count 

 Salvadori has kindly sent me four fully adult red-billed 

 examples of this species for comparison. These differ in a 

 marked degree from the specimeus in the British Museum, 

 inasmuch as all have the black subterminal band on the 

 outer tail-feathers strongly developed, though they differ one 

 from another. For example : 



a. S ad. Kagima, Shoa. The black band on the outer 

 tail-feathers is very strongly developed; 1*3 iuch wide. 



b h c, S ad. Forest of Fekerie-ghem. The black band 

 is much narrower; in b 0"7 inch wide, in c 0*4. 



d. ? ad. Daimbi. The black band is very strongly 

 developed; about 1*4 inch wide. 



It will thus be seen that, on comparing the four adult birds 

 sent by Count Salvadori from the Turin Museum with the 

 five in the British Museum, there is a marked difference 

 between the two series ; for while the British Museum speci- 

 mens (fig. 2, p. 566), though fully adult birds, show hardly 

 a trace of the black subterminal band across the outer tail- 

 feathers, which is said by Count Salvadori to denote maturity, 

 this character is strongly marked in the specimens sent 

 from Turin (fig. 1, p. 566). 



Count Salvadori has also kindly sent me for examination 

 three immature specimens of 0. monachus. All these have 

 the tail similar to that of our adult birds and show scarcely 

 a trace of a black subterminal band. On the other hand, 

 the black-billed type of 0. meneliki, which Count Salvadori 

 considered to be the young of O. monachus, lias, as the 



SER. VII. VOL. VI. JiQ 



