310 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^'c. 



detail, and two photogravures are given ; mention is also 

 made of two more hybrids which were sent alive to Dr. Vilaro. 



51. Wright and Coues on North- American Birds. 



[Citizen Bird : Scenes from Bird-life in plain English for Beginners. 

 By Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues. With one hundred and 

 eleven illustrations by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. 8vo. New York & 

 London, 1897.] 



Dr. Roy Himter, the chief personage in this book, is a 

 modern Mr. Barlow, who leads his Sandford, Merton, & Co. 

 into the wilderness of the Eastern States and discourses to 

 them of the common birds to be found therein. After con- 

 venient pauses for taking breath, the children play the well- 

 known part of the ancient chorus and start the Doctor off 

 again, with questions or remarks which are either preter- 

 naturally shrewd or simply idiotic. But beneath this 

 unnecessarily irritating introductory matter there is a fund 

 of admirable and accurate information, while many of the 

 illustrations are beautiful. 



XXVII. — Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



We have received the following letters, addressed " to the 

 Editors of ' The Ibis'^':— 



Sir, — All Ducks, Geese, and Swans, so far as I know, 

 moult all their flight-feathers at once, so that they are for 

 a time unable to fly. But the Seraipalmated Goose of 

 Australia {Anseranas melanoleuca), of which I have kept 

 specimens in confinement for several years, does not share 

 in the peculiar moult of the Anatidie. 



My birds, which are under constant observation, drop their 

 flight-feathers gradually, so that they never lose their power 

 of flight. They are also very arboreal in their habits. A 

 pair which I keep in a tolerably large aviary can constantly 

 be seen flying from perch to perch, and spend the nights and 

 the greater part of the day, when not feeding, on perches. 

 They are extremely fond of mud, and may be seen wading 



