384 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



The New B. O. U. List: some corrections. 



Sir, — May I first be permitted to congratulate the Com- 

 mittee of the B. O. U. on the very excellent working List 

 of Britisli Birds Avhich they have compiled. I wish to state 

 at once tliat the motive of this letter is not to pick small 

 holes in a big work upon Avhich so much trouble and 

 thought have been expended. 



The new " List," however, contains a number of refer- 

 ences to the Canary Islands which are evidently based on 

 inaccurate information ; as this is not by any means the 

 first time that these same statements have appeared in 

 print, I consider that the present is a favourable oppor- 

 tunity to rectify the mistakes which have occurred. 



Having made a special study of the Avifauna of the 

 Canary Islands for the past seven years, especially of the 

 literature, I can speak with a certain amount of authority. 



In a list of British Birds only a general distribution is 

 necessary, and it is obviously impossible for a committee 

 to check every reference when drawing up the exotic dis- 

 tribution of each species : the statements of local orni- 

 ihologists have usually to be taken on trust, and it is 

 very difficult, and often quite impossible, to verify their 

 assertions. Unless mistakes in distribution, however small, 

 are corrected by one who has made a special study of the 

 district, they are apt to be copied and repeated ad infinitum. 



This is my excuse for trespassing so much on your space : 

 the following comments may seem worthy of consideration 

 bv the committee, whose duty it Avill be to bring out the 

 next edition of the B. O. U. List of British Birds. 



The species mentioned are arranged under the names used 

 in the " List," with a reference to the page on Avhich they 

 occur in that work. When a sentence is quoted direct from 

 the List, the entire sentence is put in italics. 



CoRVUS CORAX (p. 1). It is very doubtful whether the Raven of 

 the Canary Iblands is distinct, vide Ibis, 1912, p. (525 ; 1914, 

 p. 235. 



