] 8.2 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



eleanorce from Fazogli, and Passer domesticus chephreni from 

 Giza, near Cairo.'' 



As regards Capriinulgiis eleanora, I have just received 

 from Dr. Phillips the coloured plate of the bird which 

 appeared in 'The Auk/ vol. xxxi. pi. xiii., April 1914, on 

 which Dr. Phillips has written " The plate is too light and 

 too brown, the bird is blacker.^' 



I do not know with what material Dr. Phillips compared 

 his bird before describing it, but had he availed himself of 

 the opportunity of examining my collection while in Khar- 

 toum he would have found the same bird, from the same 

 locality, and could have ascertained "the unknown charac- 

 ters " of the male, which has large subtcrminal white spots 

 on the two outer rcctrices. Caprhniilyus eleanora does not 

 appear to me to differ in any detail of plumage or measure- 

 ments from C. trimaculatiis (Swains.) (=C, lentiginosus 

 Smith=C. tristigma Ptlipp.), with which I unhesitatingly 

 identify it, after having compared Fazogli birds with skins 

 at the British JNIuseum and at Tring. 



Dr. Phillips's statement that the bird is ''most nearly 

 like C. monticola of India " leaves me in doubt as to whether 

 he compared it with a series of C. trimaculatus at all. 



While fully recognizing the good work of American 

 ornithologists, I think it is a matter for regret that many 

 " new " forms of African birds have lately been described 

 by them, based on one or two specimens only, and without 

 comparison with the material in the museums of Europe. 

 The result is that some recent descriptions are more of an 

 addition to synonymy than to scientific knowledge. 



Passer domesticus chephreni appears to be identical with 

 Passer domesticus niloticus Nicoll & Bonhote, with which, 

 and not with P. d. indicus Hart., Nicoll and Bonhote now 



unite the G:za Sparrow. 



I am, Sir, 



Yours &c., 



A. L. BuTLEft. 



Khartoum, 

 Octol)er 7, 1914. 



