Letters, Extracts, Notices, i^c. 523 



187."), having displayed coii.sidcrablc interest in Ornithology, 

 and being the possessor of a noted collection of birds, which 

 he had inherited from his father. The specimens of this 

 collection were set up by Lead beater, and from him, in all 

 protjability, was purchased an egg of the Great Auk at a 

 a price which in these days would seem ridiculous (from £\ 

 to c€3, it is said, but accounts vary). Lord Malcolm, though 

 very fond of birds, was not given to writing upon them, and 

 his name does not appear among the contributors to our 

 columns. 



XXXIL — Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



We have received the following letters addressed to " The 

 Editors " :— 



Sirs, — I think that it will rot be without interest to the 

 readers of ' The Ibis '' to know that H.M. Vittorio Emanuele, 

 our present King, has disposed of the ornithological 

 collection that his grandfather, Vittorio Emanuele IL, put 

 together at Maudria, not far from Turin. The collection 

 had been removed to the Castle of Moncalieri, and quite 

 recently it was divided between the Museum of Turin and 

 that of Rome. The birds allotted to the latter museum 

 include the well-known specimen of Alca impennis, which 

 Victor Emanuel, the grandfather, had bought from the collec- 

 tion of Pastor Brehra. The series presented to the Museum 

 of Turin contains, among other rarities, a specimen of 

 Ceriornis caboti, which has been the subject of a small paper 

 of mine published in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society of London ' for 1871 (pp. 495-496) ; but the rarest 

 bird is a Garrulus lidthi, of which only three specimens are 

 known, and which I have mentioned in another paper of 

 mine, " Nota intorno al Garrulus lidthii " (Atti E,. Ac. Sc. 

 Tor. vii, 1872, pp. 473-47G). Of this species two living 

 specimens were brought from Japan and given to King 

 Victor Emanuel. It would be interesting to know \\hat 

 has become of the second specimen, which, on its sale at 



