168 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^e. 



Errata in Mr. Rickett's Paper. — Mr. C. B, Riclcett wishes 

 to call attention to two errors in nomenclature which occur 

 in his paper on Foochow birds, published in ' The Ibis ' for 

 April 1894. The Swallow recorded (page 222) as Hirundo 

 erythrogastra should stand as Hirundo tytleri, and Alca umi- 

 suzume (p. 225) should be Alca aniiqua. 



The "Scomber-scomber^^ Principle. — In reference to some 

 remarks on the "Scomber-scomber " principle ('Ibis/ 1894, 

 p. 566), a much valued correspondent writes as follows : — 



" It has for a long while seemed to me that this so-called 

 principle originated in a printer's error. In the 10th edition 

 of the 'S.N.'' Linnseus had ' Scomber Scombrus' — and in 

 each of the two copies of the 12th edition formerly belonging 

 to him, and now in the possession of the Linnean Society, 

 you will see that the marginal ' Scomber ' is corrected into 

 ' Scombrus,'' by Linn?eus^s own hand, so far as I can judge. 



" Everybody who has had experience of printers knows 

 how apt they are to make a mistake of this kind. They are 

 hard to persuade that two words may be nearly alike and yet 

 intended to differ slightly. It is pretty evident that the 

 printer of the 12th edition, seeing ' Scomber' in more than 

 one place, thought that ' Scomber ' should stand everywhere, 

 and altered ' Scumbrus ' accordingly ; but the corrected copies 

 show that this was not Linnseus's intention, and no doubt if 

 he had lived to publish a new edition of the 'S. N.' (for 

 which one of these copies was being corrected) it would have 

 contained ' Scombrus' just as the 10th does." — P. L. S. 



Tinamous at Washington. — With reference to the Editorial 

 note in ' The Ibis ' for July last (' Ibis,^ 1894, p. 453) Mr. F. 

 A. Lucas kindly informs us that Tinamous were sold last 

 winter in the market at Washington as " English Partridges," 

 having been brought there from England along with Phea- 

 sants and other European game-birds. 



The Bird-Collection at Zurich. — Passing through Zurich 

 in September last the writer devoted an hour to the exami- 



