5G8 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



presumably its mate, on some rough uncultivated land, 

 and a very high wind from the east was blowing at the 

 same time. 



For this interesting addition to my Collection and for the 

 particulars concerning its capture I am indebted to the 

 kindness of the Marquese Arezzo and his son the Duca di 

 Celano, large land-owners in the above-mentioned district. 



1 believe this to be the first recorded instance of the 

 occurrence of this bird not only in Italy, but in Europe. 



I am, Sirs, yours &c, 

 Villa Malfitano, Joseph I. S. Whitaker. 



Palermo, Sicily. 

 June 2nd, l!)10. 



[We believe that Mr. Whitaker is quite correct in stating 

 that the Senegalese Sand-Grouse has not been previously 

 recorded in Europe. It is, however, well known in Algeria 

 and Tunis, see Whitaker's ' Birds of Tunisia/ vol. ii. 

 p. 210.— Edd.] 



Death of Lieutenant Boyd Alexander. — Most of our friends 

 will already be acquainted with the sad news of the death 

 of Lieutenant Boyd Alexander, who was killed on April 

 the 2nd in a skirmish with the natives at Xyeri, some 60 or 

 70 miles to the north-east of Abeshr, the capital of Wadai, 

 while endeavouring to force his way from Lake Chad into 

 the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. We hope to be able to give 

 some account of the life and work of this great Explorer 

 and Naturalist in our next number. 



A rare Jay in Berlin. — It appears from a notice in 

 ' The Field' (vol. cxv. p. 779) that a living example of the 

 rare Jay, Garrulus 1'nlthi, of the Loochoo Islands, has been 

 lately received by the Zoological Garden of Berlin. This 

 Jay was first described by Bonaparte in 1850, and was 

 beautifully figured by Wolf in the Zoological Society's 

 ' Proceedings ' (1850, p. 80, pi. xvii.) from a single specimen 

 in the collection of Prof, vau Lidth de Jeude, of Utrecht. 



