Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 567 



species what now appears to be an old one, there was, as I 

 have shown, every excuse for such an error of judgment. 



Yours &c., 



Briti.sh Museum (Natural Ilistorv), W. R. Ooilvie Grant. 

 May 1st, 1900. 



Sirs, — I have lately returned from Palermo, where I 

 made a most pleasant visit to my friend Mr. Joseph S. 

 Whitaker at his beautiful villa of Malfitano. Among the 

 many attractions of the place, one of the most interesting 

 is the new Zoological Museum, situated in the beautifully 

 wooded grounds, close to the villa, which was opened on the 

 first day of the current year, 1900. On visiting the museum, 

 after ascending a short flight of white marble steps, and 

 passing through a vestibule, one enters a spacious hall or 

 gallery, illuminated by top-light. Ranged round the walls 

 of this hall are large glass cabinets, containing mounted 

 specimens of Italian and Sicilian birds ; also some collections 

 of small mammals from Sicily, Tunis, and Marocco, and two 

 cabinets containing birds' eggs. On the walls are some 

 magnificent heads of red deer from North Italy, and a good 

 collection of gazelle- and antelope-heads from Tunisia. 

 Among other trophies which adorn the walls is a fine head 

 of the alpine ibex, killed by Uml)ert, King of Italy, in the 

 Val d'Aosta, and presented by His Majesty to Wiiitakei-. 

 There is also the head of a fallow-deer, which was shot by 

 Victor Emanuel. In the centre of the hall, directly under 

 the skylight, are ten large cabinets, containing the extensive 

 collection of birds formed by the late Lord Lilford, which 

 was purchased by Whitaker after the death of our late 

 esteemed President, and is preserved intact by its present 

 owner. This collection, which is very complete as regards 

 birds from the Mediterranean district generally, and Spain 

 in particular, is especially rich in Raptores, and can also 

 boast of a very fine series of skins of that rare Gull, Lams 

 audouini, of which there are seven or eight fine specimens, 

 all collected by Lord Lilford himself on the coasts of 

 Sardinia. The cabinets containing this larije collection are 



