424 Letters, Extracts, Notices, &;c. 



his ' Index Ornithologicus .' As regards.the name '^ africana " 

 for the White-eyed Duck, it must be allowed, he alleges, 

 to be not appropriate for a bird that only visits the northern 

 part of Africa in the winter. Our reviewer^ in spite of what 

 Count Salvadori says, still maintains it to be a " bad one " ; 

 but this is a matter of opinion. Moreover, he urges that it 

 was proposed in the same work as " ferruginea," and has 

 therefore no precedence in point of date over the latter 

 term. — Edd.] 



Sirs, — I have to thank you very much for sending me the 

 uncoloured lithograph of Falco ricliardsoni, and I waited till 

 my ' Ibis^ came to see whether a conspicuous fault that at once 

 attracted my notice was in any way lessened in the colouring. 

 This is the drawing of the tibial plumes. Keuleraans has 

 depicted these by a hard, well-formed feather, somewhat 

 resembling one from the scapulars. These tibial plumes are 

 always filamentary or loose disintegrated feathers, having 

 quite a '' fluflFy,^^ soft appearance. 



These feathers are not so easy to draw, and if Mr. Keule- 

 mans were to study some of the living Raptors in the Zoolo- 

 gical Gardens he would soon correct the error of which I 

 speak. In other respects this plate is one of the most 

 beautiful that I have ever seen. When I cover the bird's 

 legs with my finger-end it is a very different picture, — but 

 that tibial plume is terrible ! 



In spite of it, however, a good service has been done, and a 

 most beautiful Merlin wall now be Avell known to most 

 ornithologists who take an interest in Raptors. 



I am, 



Yours &c., 



W. E. Brooks. 



Mount Forest, Ontario, Canada, 

 April 24th, 1896. 



Sirs, — I think that the following notes on certain events in 

 my aviaries may interest many members of the B. O. U. : — 

 Towards the end of February 1892 a pair of Australian 



