Letters, Extracts, Notices, &;c. 167 



that the term Plectrophanes was originally based upon the 

 Lapland Bunting, Calcarius lapponicus. Mr. Ridgway 

 ('Auk/ XV. p. 324) now wishes to alter it again to Passerina, 

 upon the plea that Vieillot assigned three types to that genus, 

 and that, the two former of these having become types of 

 other genera {Cyanospiza and Dolic/ionyx), the name Pas- 

 serina must revert to the third type named by Vieillot, i. e. to 

 Emberiza nivalis. We should rather hold that Passerina is 

 void for ambiguity, and that it is better to use Cyanospiza, 

 Dolichonyx, and Plectrophenax for its three component 

 elements respectively. We do not quite agree to the doc- 

 trine of " elimination " as put into practice by our American 

 friends. 



The Egg of Pityriasis gymnocephala. — In October 1895 

 Mr. G. Bartlett, the former curator of the Sarawak Museum, 

 obtained a female specimen of this bird, the oviduct of which 

 contained, ready for extrusion, an egg in rather a fragmentary 

 condition; great care was taken in piecing the loose frag- 

 ments together, with the result of producing a fairly pre- 

 sentable specimen. 



The egg is pure white, irregularly and sparingly blotched 

 with brown and slaty blue, the blotches being more numerous 

 on the upper half and forming an irregular ring on the large 

 end of the ^^g. Size (approximately) 32 x 23 millim. 



The eggs of the Laniidae are not unlike that of Pityriasis, 

 but in the absence of knowledge of the anatomy and nesting- 

 habits of the bird it is hazardous to use oology as a means 

 whereby to trace affinities. My own dissections of the bird, 

 so far as they have gone, seem to show some affinities with 

 Eulabes, but I hope to publish shortly a full account of its 

 anatomy, and till then will defer all remarks on the subject. 



Mr. C. Hose (^bis,' July 1893, p. 394) states that the 

 nest of this species is made in natural hollows of trees, and 

 he describes the egg as pale blue, but does so purely from 

 memory, as he confesses ; it is not impossible that he described 

 the nest also from memory, but in any case further and fuller 

 evidence is much needed. — R. Shelford. 



