346 Letters, Extracts, Notices, <SfC. 



Sir, — During the last fortnight several examples of Ampelis 

 garrulus have been shot in the provinces of Overyssel and 

 Drenthe, so that it seems that a southern migration of these 

 birds is taking place. 



It is a long time since birds of this species visited this 



country. 



Yours &c., 



's Graveland, HilveTsura, F. E. Blaauw. 



16th December, 1891. 



Sir, — To the remarks on my short paper on Birds from 

 Mindoro in the last ' Il)is ^ (above, p. 170) you have added a 

 footnote, in which you state that in my rough prefatory 

 sketch of what is known of the birds of the Philippines I 

 have omitted mention of a very important paper on the 

 birds of those islands, i. e. that of Dr. Sharpe on the birds 

 collected by Dr. Steere during his first expedition. Such 

 is not the case, as I mentioned Dr. Steere^s well-known first 

 expedition in the first line on p. 200. Moreover, in the tenth 

 line on the same page I said : — " Quite recently Dr. Steere 

 recommenced his investigations, '■'• — clearly indicating that I 

 was aware of his previous work. 1 did not quote the title 

 and page of Dr. Sharpe's article, as a general reference to 

 that as well as to other articles seemed to be sufficient. 



Yours &c., 

 London, Ernst Hartert. 



Feb. 1st, 1892. 



Sir, — In my paper on the genus Turnix, published in 

 'The Ibis ^ for 1889, I discussed at some length (pp.471, 

 472) my reasons for believing that Turnix nigricollis from 

 Madagascar forms an exception to the other members of the 

 genus in having the plumage of the male exactly similar to 

 that of the female. I have now, however, been able to ascer- 

 tain that, in spite of the evidence of " reliable collectors," 

 the conclusions there arrived at were wrong, and that the 

 female only has the black throat and the grey and rust- 

 coloured patches on the sides of the chest. 



