Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 151 



Danish Lighthouses is drawn up on the same plan as former 

 Reports [of. Ibis, 1900, p. 216), and is accompanied by the 

 usual excellent map. In 1899, 868 specimens of birds were 

 sent from the stations to the Zoological Museum of Copen- 

 hagen, and referred to 56 species. It is curious that such 

 birds as Alauda arvensis, Turclus merula, and Erithacus 

 ruhecula, which we should be inclined to class as sedentarj 

 in England, are found wandering about in the Danish 

 archipelago. 



XI. — Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



We have received the following letters, addressed to ' The 

 Editors ' by Mr. D. Le Souef, Mr. R. Shelford, and Mr. W. 

 L. Sclater : — 



Sirs, — I notice that Mr. II. C. Robinson, in his "Con- 

 tributions to the Zoology of North Queensland/' in the 

 Bull. Liverp. Mus. ii. p. 115 (1900), treats the Dacelo giyas 

 found there as being doubtfully subspecific under the name 

 of " D. g. minor." These birds extend from the South- 

 eastern portion of Australia right through to the North- 

 eastern, Avithout any break, and as we go further towards the 

 north they gradually decrease in size, but very slightly. 

 Those found in the extreme north are, therefore, less in 

 their measurements than those from further south, but cannot 

 well be referred to a subspecies on that account, as inter- 

 mediate sizes are found. The same remark applies to several 

 other birds, such as Manorhina garrula and Trichoglossus 

 novac-hollandice, which also extend over the continent on the 

 eastern side. In Northern Australia some of the birds, 

 which are either weak in flight or local in their ranges, such 

 as Calyptorhynchus funereus and Psophodes crepitans, have 

 notes slightly different from those of the same kind found 

 in the more southern districts ; and as we go from one 

 extreme of the Continent to the other, the note often seems 

 to change gradually. Mr. Robinson mentions the range of 

 Prionodura newtoniana as now extending to Mount Peter 



