Letters, Announcements, S^c. 119 



X. — Letters, Announcements, ^c. 

 We have received the following letters addressed to the 

 Editorsof ^ The Ibis:'— 



Sirs, — A Greenland Falcon {Falco candicans) was shot in 

 the neighbourhood of Lewes on the 26th inst. The bird 

 passed into the hands of Mr. Monk, of that town, and was taken 

 to Mr. Swaysland to be preserved and set up. It was a very 

 fine specimen, of the female sex, in the snowy-white plumage, 

 speckled on the back, wings, and tail with brownish black ; 

 measured 52 inches across the wings, and weighed no less 

 than 3 pounds 11 ounces. It had scarcely completed its 

 autumnal moult, some of the new feathers having not 

 attained their full length. I have had the pleasure of 

 handling this rara avis in the flesh, through the kindness of 

 Mr. Swaysland, who had just commenced skinning it. 



It is a curious coincidence that rather more than three 

 months ago, as I am informed, one of Mr, Swaysland's sons, 

 who was at Lyme Regis, distinctly recognized a Falcon in 

 similar plumage, when out walking with a friend on Sunday, 

 11th June, He wrote to his father at Brighton for his 

 gun and licence, set traps for it, but never saw it again. A 

 strange white bird was also seen lately about the Brighton 

 coast, and is said to have been fired at on the 1st Sep- 

 tember, There can be little doubt that these statements all 



refer to the same bird. 



Yours &c,, 



Chas, a, Wright. 

 Brighton, 27th Sept., 1882. 



P.S. Since writing the foregoing I have seen a letter from 

 Mr. Swayslaud's son Henry to his mother, dated Rousdon, 

 28tli Sept., in which he gives some further particulars of 

 the circumstances respecting his meeting with the Falcon 

 above alluded to. He says he was out with a friend on the 

 11th June, down the landslip, when a bird flew up, and 

 then went down a steep place and up the other side. He 

 exclaimed, " That is a rare Gull ; it has not any black tips 

 to its wings ; it must be an Iceland Gull. Keep quiet ; we 

 will go and look over and see if we can see it again." On 



