Letters, Extracts, unci Notes. 7Q>\ 



Indian palaeontologists to the importance of keeping a good 

 look out for the fossil remains of this group of birds. 



Yours &c, 



Edward Bidwell. 



Sirs,— My collector, Mr. J. P. Rogers, has sent me from 

 the Tinarni Gold Fields, Northern Territory, a skin of 

 Aphelocephala nigricincta (Mathews, Hand-1. B. Austral, 

 p. 87), which he obtained on March 27th, 1910. This locality 

 is 700 miles north of Missionary Plains, Macdonald Ranges, 

 Central Australia, where the type of the species was obtained 

 by Mr. G. A. Keartland. 



Mr. A. J. North described this bird as Xerophila nigri- 

 cincta in 'The Ibis ' of 1895 (p. 340). He also figured it 

 in the c Report of the Horn Scientific Expedition/ Aves, 

 plate vii. (1896). The nests and. eggs are described in the 

 same Report (p. 83). 



This is the first record of this species since it was described 

 fifteen years ago, and it is also from a new locality. 



The soft parts are : " Bill leaden-brown ; iris white ; feet 

 and tarsi leaden-blue.'" 



The stomach contained fragments of beetles and seeds, as 

 well as a little grit. 



I am, Sirs, yours &c, 



Langley Mount, Gregory M. Mathews. 



Watford, 



August 3rd, 1910. 



Sirs, — Readers of f The Ibis' will, I think, be interested 

 to know that in our lagoons last spring was shot an adult 

 female of the Shoveller (Spatula clypeatd) wholly white. 

 This bird was seen for several days on the wing at all hours, 

 beating up and down over the large salt-marshes which lie in 

 the Province of Padua; but, owing to its excessive shyness, it 

 was always far out of shot, and people were unable to secure 

 it. But on the morning of 14th of March last an ardent 

 sportsman, Dr. Albert Guillion Mangilli, had the good fortune 

 to kill it in the Yalle Sacche di Millecampi. It is a rather 



