] 74 Letters, Extracts, Announcements, 6fc. 



reposed on straw. I approached the nests as near as I pos- 

 sibly could, and the FlamingoS;, taking fright, flew oflF. There 

 was no sign of eggs, though a Flamingo egg (of a dirty 

 whity-brown colour) was afterwards procured from the same 

 locality. The nests seemed to be mounds of black mud, 

 scraped up from the surrounding ground. Reeds were stick- 

 ing out of tbem in all directions, apparently without design. 

 The appearance of the nests suggested to me that the Fla- 

 mingo had crushed and trodden down the low-growing reeds 

 and piled wet mud on them. The tame Flamingos I was 

 keeping in my garden at the same time were always scraping 

 up dirt with their feet, and dragging it about. I intended 

 to return to the same spot the following day, and pursue my 

 investigations ; but, unfortunately, tbis part of the lake is very 

 unhealthy, and the night and morning I had passed on its 

 fetid waters had inoculated me with the Morah fever, of which 

 I had so severe a bout that I was obliged to return to 

 England as soon as I was convalescent. 



I am told that Flamingos breed not only on the Lake of 

 Tunis but on that of Bizerta, in the north of the Regency, 

 and on the brackish lakes in the extreme south, near Gaks 

 and the Sahara. 



Much information may be procured from Mme. Elisa 

 Noel, Rue Lidi jNIorgiani, Tunis, who is a dealer in and ex- 

 porter of water-birds. 



I am. Sirs, yours, &c., 



H. H. Johnston. 



Zoological Society's Gardens, Reg'ent's Park, 

 London, N.W., December 1st, 1880. 



Sirs, — As many of the readers of 'The Ibis' probably 

 already know, and as I have incidentally stated above (p. 2), 

 I am now engaged in the completion of the unfinished work 

 left by the late Prof. Garrod on the Anatomy of Birds. 

 Thanks to the stores of specimens accumulated by him, and 

 my prosectorial advantages, I have in my possession (or, at 

 all events, have prospectively) specimens in the flesh of nearly 

 all of the most important forms of birds. 



