664 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



My friend, the late Mr. Ussher, examined more Peregrines' 

 breeding-places than any man in the British Isles, and the 

 following is taken from his book, 'The Birds of Ireland,' 

 p. 140 : — " Rooks are by far the most usual quarry in 

 Co. Waterford . . . ." 



Yours truly, 

 Kocklow, Fetliard, C. J. CarROLL. 



Co. Tipperary. 

 21 July, 1910. 



Australian Subspecies. 



Dear Sir, — I was glad to see Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant's 

 notes in reply to Mr. Gregory M. Mathews in the April 

 issue of 'The Ibis' in which he says "Such a system of 

 name-juggling and species-splitting as he adopts can only 

 result ill hopeless chaos." 



We in Australia have protested personally to him against 

 the indefinite multiplication of subspecies. I have worked at 

 Australian Ornithology for over thirty years, and, in common 

 with many of my co-workers in the field, am convinced that 

 a large proportion of Mr. Mathews's subspecies are barely 

 varieties. I myself have on several occasions described as 

 subspecies forms that I should much prefer to note as slight 

 variants from type, but not deserving of subspecific rank. 



For instance, in the genus Rhipidura the species named 

 by Latham ^'' rufifrons" exhibits a gradual transition from 

 the form occurring in Victoria with almost three-quarters 

 of the tail orange-rufous to the form from Queensland 

 described by Mr. North as '"'■ intermedia^' ''with less orange- 

 rufous on basal half of tail-feathers.^' In the form from 

 Anson Bay, Northern Territory, described by myself in 

 'The Emu,' July 1911, under the name oi Rhipidura mayi, 

 the characteristic orange-rufous coloration of the basal 

 half of the tail-feathers is absent, except for a touch of 

 rufous on the outer web. From a locality still further 

 round the coast to the west, Gould described in his ' Birds 



