134 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



information. The following species are figured : — Simorhyn- 

 chus pygmaus, Brachyrhamphus kittlitzii, Lagopus rupestris 

 atkhensis J* et $ , Ulula cinerea lapponica, Surnia ulula, 

 Loxia leucoptera iu first plumage^ Pyrrhula cassini ? , Leu- 

 costicte griseinucha, Motacilla ocularis, Troglodytes alascensis, 

 Anthus cervinus in winter plumage^ Furus hudsonicus and 

 P. cinctus obtectus. A Yellow Wagtail [Budytes flavus leuco- 

 striaius) is a regular summer visitor to the Alaskan littoral, 

 arriving about June 12th and departing about Sept. 21st and 

 breeding. The Grey Wagtail {Motacilla ocularis) was only 

 once obtained at Unalashka, in May. 



To his special notes Mr. Turner appends a complete list 

 of the birds of Alaska, as yet " authentically known and 

 recognized. ^^ 



XII. — Letters, Extracts, Notices, 6^'c. 



AVe have received the following letters addressed to the 

 Editor of 'The Ibis:' — 



Novthrepps, September 1888, 

 Sir, — M. Boucard, of Paris, has recently sent me five speci- 

 mens of Buteu stvainsoni, killed during the months of October 

 and November in the interior of Venezuela, three of which, 

 two melanistic, and one partially so, I have retained for the 

 Norwich Museum, M-hich previously possessed one wholly 

 and two partly melanistic examples of this species. 



All these specimens are dark brown, but not blackish, the 

 tint of brown varying from "seal-brown" No. 1 to "^ sepia- 

 brown " No. 2, in plate 3 of Ridgway's 'Nomenclature of 

 Colour.' 



This coloration probably agrees with the " brun fuligineux ''■' 

 which has been desci"ibed by M. Oustalet as the prevailing 

 colour of the type specimen of Buteo vnicolor of D'Orbigny. 

 M. Oustalet^s description of this type, quoted by Mr. Salvin 

 in 'The Ibis,' 1886, p. 73, appears to me to agree more 

 closely with the melanistic phase of Bitteo swainsoni than it 

 does with the two blackish-brown Buzzards collected bv Mr, 



