298 Letters, Extracts, Notices, &;c. 



brought to me for identification a beautiful adult male of this 

 rare Hawk^ which he had just received from a customer. 

 Upou instituting inquiries, I find that the bird was shot at 

 Shankill (on the borders of the counties of Dublin and 

 Wicklow), on the 17th of February, by Mr, Michael Carr, 

 whilst it was following the plough and feeding, like a Gull, 

 upon earthworms. Through the kind assistance of my friend 

 Mr. James Johnston, of Bray, I have further ascertained 

 that the bird had been first noticed early in November, and 

 was seen in the same neighbourhood on various occasions 

 all through the winter, nearly always when following the 

 workmen upon newly ploughed land. 



Yours &c., 



Alexander G. More. 



Munia shm'pii. — Dr. Hartlaub writes to us as follows : — 

 ^^As to Amadina sharpii, I have compared the original 

 coloured drawing of Pytelia capist7'ata, made by Beaudeauin 

 from a cage-bird at Bissao, with the figure published by 

 Nicholson in the P. Z. S. 1878, pi. x. {Amadina sharpii), 

 and have not the slightest doubt as to the identity of these 

 two birds. So this fine species must now stand as Munia 

 capistrata (Hartl.), it being my Pytelia capistrata in Cab. 

 Journ. for 1861, p. 259. I observe that Mr. Sharpe, in his 

 recent catalogue of the Ploceidse (Cat. Birds B. M. vol. 

 xiii. pp. 301-303), has not made out this identification.^' 



Reappearance of Poly teles alexandrse. — A letter addressed 

 to the ' Australian Register ' of August 9th, 1890, and kindly 

 communicated to us by the writer, Mr. M. Symonds Clark, 

 of Knightsbridge, Adelaide, S. Australia, tells us that two 

 living specimens of the rare Parrakeet Polyteles alexandrce 

 have lately been brought into Adelaide, having been taken 

 from the nest in the neighbourhood of Charlotte Waters. 

 The only previously known specimens of this rare and 

 beautiful species were those originally described by Gould, 

 and figured in the ' Supplement to the Birds of Au stralia ' 

 (pi. 62). These examples, which had been procured by 



