Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 283 



nent residents. These islands positively swarm with Calcenas 

 nicobarica. These birds nest here in trces^ to which they 

 readily take when disturbed on the ground. There are no 

 monkeys nor wild pigs on the islands. 



The locality printed " Falassan " in my previous note should 

 be '' Palawan." 



Yours &c.^ 



A. Everett. 



62 Stanhope Gardens, Queen's Gate, 

 Feb. 17, 1888. 



Sirs, — Your issue of January last contains an interesting 

 contribution " On the Birds of New Zealand/' by Mr. T. W. 

 Kirk, of the Geological Survey Department, Wellington, 

 N.Z. Among other things he mentions (at p. 46) the occur- 

 rence of an Australian Masked Plover at Kai-Iwi in the 

 North Island ; but he is wrong in his identification of the 

 species. Instead of being Lobivanellus personatus , as he sup- 

 poses, it is undoubtedly L. lobatus. The colours and markings 

 of the two species are very similar, but the character of the 

 " mask '^ is entirely different in the two birds. Mr. Drew, 

 in whose little museum at Wanganui the specimen is pre- 

 served, has sent me a sketch of the head, which places its 

 determination beyond question. In the descrij^tion which 

 he gives of the plumage he mentions that the '' crown, nape, 

 hind neck, and ear-coverts are jet-black,^' and that the back is 

 " reddish grey." The description given by Mr. Kirk is 

 avowedly taken from Gould's account of L. personatus, and 

 does not exactly accord with Mr. Drew's. 



Yours &c., 



W. L. BULLER. 



Seg-gieden, Perth, 



Feb. 28, 1888. 



Sirs, — As the following notice of what I believe to be 

 the second occurrence of Saxicola deserti in Scotland may 

 be interesting to some of the readers of ' The Ibis,' and as 

 the bird came into my hands in a somewhat chance way, I 



