Letters, Extracts, Notices, fyc. 265 



existence. For the proportion of fossil to existing birds is 

 small indeed, about 500 extinct to 12,000 living species, and 

 most of these are from the Miocene or later horizons ; they 

 are easily referable to existing families, and often to existing 

 genera, so that they throw little light on the phylogeny of 

 modern birds." 



XXV. — Letters, Extracts, Notices, §c. 



We have received the following letters addressed to " The 

 Editors " :— 



Sirs, — Referring to your remarks ( f Ibis/ 1902, p. 674) 

 on the dead birds seen by Mr. R. W. Llewellyn at the 

 Casquets Lighthouse on May 15th, I venture to suggest 

 that they were possibly Common Redstarts (Ruticilla 

 phcenicurus) , the males of which are brightly coloured on 

 the breast. 



In Ireland, at any rate, few if any Robins are migrating 

 in May, whereas the end of April or beginning of May is 

 the usual date for Redstarts to arrive. I agree with you 

 that the birds are very unlikely to have been Red-breasted 

 Flycatchers {Muscicapa parva) . 



Yours &c, 



Richard M. Barrington. 



Fassaroe, Bray, 



Co. Wicklow. 



Sirs, — In reference to my remarks on the Albatrosses 

 (see above, p. 81). I wish to add that Dr. Davidson, of ss. 

 ' Morning/ has just brought to the Museum two specimens 

 of a Mollymawk from the Indian Ocean, which I take to be 

 the true Diomedea culminata. They are certainly distinct 

 from Diomedea duller i of the Snares, and therefore the 

 latter remains a good species. The difference between 

 D. bulleri and D. culminata is in the culmicorn, which is 

 more expanded posteriorly in D. bulleri than in D. culminata. 

 If D. bulleri had been put into the genus Thalassogeron, and 



