110 Letters, Extracts, Notices, tyc. 



Sirs, — I Lave tlie pleasure of informing you that last 

 autumn I bought, through Mr. Vallon's kindness, a splendid 

 specimen of Athene chiaradice, which is now in my collection. 

 It is ail adult male, and has been beautifully mounted by 

 Prof. Martorelli; it was taken from the nest by Mr. Vallou, 

 July 8th, 1901, on the Alps of Friuli. In my opinion this 

 is the most interesting of the four specimens of this Owl 

 which are known, because it was first described by Mr. Vallou 

 and afterwards by Prof. Murtorelli, who has also given an 

 excellent photo of it. I consider it superfluous to repeat my 

 previous statement that this supposed species is, in my 

 opinion, founded upon aberrant specimens of our Little Owl 

 {A. noctua). Yours &c., 



Count E. Arrigoni Dkgli Oddi. 



Florence, Italy, Palazzo Panciatichi- 



Ximenes, December 10th, 1902. 



News of Mr. NicolL— Mr. M. J. Nicoll, M.B.O.U., who 

 has been invited to accompany Lord Crawford as Naturalist 

 on a tour round the world in the S.Y. ' Valhalla/ writes to 

 us from Lisbon on Nov. 28th about the marine birds which 

 he has observed, and concerning which he is keeping a 

 regular journal. Shags, Cormorants, Gauuets, and Gulls of 

 several species were noted at the Balenga Islands. From 

 Lisbon the 'Valhalla' will proceed to Madeira and St. Vincent, 

 and thence to South Trinidad and down the South-American 

 coast. Passing through the Straits of Magellan, the ' Val- 

 halla' will visit all the principal groups of the South Pacific 

 Islands and return home by the Suez Canal. 



New Expedition to South America. — We are pleased to 

 see an announcement in ' Nature ' that Othmar Reiser, the 

 well-known ornithologist of the Bosnian Museum at Sara- 

 jevo, will accompany a scientific expedition sent out by the 

 Academy of Sciences of Vienna to South America. The 



