Letters, Extracts, Notices, S^c. 143 



The Birds of British India. — We are pleased to be able to 

 announce that Mr. Eugene William Gates, Member of tliis 

 Union, and the well-known author of ' The Birds of British 

 Burmah/ has undertaken the preparation of the volumes on 

 Birds belonging to the series on the Fauna of British India, 

 published under the authority of the Secretary of State for 

 India in Council, and edited by Mr. W. T. BLanford, F.R.S. 

 Mr. Gates has returned to this country from India for the 

 express purpose of performing this work, and is busily en- 

 gaged thereixpon at the British Museum of Natural History, 

 where he has the advantage of the Hume collection to faci- 

 litate his labours. 



The Norther7i Fa/cons — Mr. J. H. Gurney calls our atten- "V- 

 tion to the following passages in Mr. Nelson's lately issued 

 ' Birds of Alaska ' (of which we shall give a review in our 

 next number) respecting the Northern Falcons of the genus 

 Hierofaico : — 



"Throughout all Alaska, from the Aleutian Islands north, 

 both along the coast and through the interior, the present 

 Falcon (i.e. Falco rvsticolus gyrfalco) is the commonest resi- 

 dent bird of prey. 



" The young from Alaska form a pretty uniform series, 

 with but a comparatively small amount of variation for this 

 extremely polymorphic species. The specimen obtained on 

 the Seal Islands by Elliott is larger and paler than the 

 average Alaska birds, and thus approaches nearer the young 

 of the form known as islandicus. The adults secured on the 

 shores of North Sound vary in the amount of spotting on 

 the abdominal surface, and in the size and shape of those 

 spots. Gn the back they also vary from a condition in which 

 the entire surface is washed heavily with ashy blue and the 

 light cross-barring of the feathers is nearly obsolete, to one 

 in which the cross-bars are well marked and of a dull yel- 

 lowish white. 



" In a series of skins of this species from various parts of 

 its range there is foimd an interminable gradation from the 

 whitest islandicus to the darkest ^f/yr/fl/co and rus/ico/ns. Spe- 



