1918.] Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 743 



imagiuatiou be said to be in '' Upper Egypt." The farm 

 occurring on the Dongola bend of the Nile is, as I have 

 stated above, different from that found in Upper Egypt and 

 must be known as G. c. nubica Bianchi. As I stated in my 

 paper in *The Ibis' in \9U, nubica of Bianchi has never 

 been recorded from Egypt, nor to my mind is it ever likely 

 to occur there ! 



C. L. Brehm's ideas of Upper Egypt and Nubia may not 

 have been " very fixed," but he first described G. c. aiti- 

 rosiris, giving '' Upper Egypt seldom Northwards" as a 

 definite locality, therefore his name for that form must 

 stand. 



Hartert's statement on p. 440, i. e., " Brehm when first 

 naming this form (Vogelfang, p. 124, 1855) said ' Ober- 

 iigypten' " is not quite correct, for, in the description referred 

 to, Brehm adds " selten nordlich.*' 



We therefore have these facts to consider : — 



In 1855 Brehm names a bird from Kom Ombo, Upper 

 Egypt, as Galerita altirostris, giving the localities as 

 Upper Egypt seldom northwards. 



In 1858 he describes a form from Aswan as Galerila 

 maculata. The type of this form can easily be matched 

 with other examples from Upper Egypt, and therefore does 

 not differ from his G. altirostris of 1855 ! 



(Crested Larks vary quite considerably individually in all 

 parts of their range, and one requires large series before 

 "rushing into print.") 



Hartert now wishes to transfer the old name altirostris 

 of the Upper Egyptian bird to a totally diff^erent form from 

 Dongola (which is not in Upper Egypt or in Egypt at all !), 

 regardless of the fact that Brehm had already used this 

 name for the Upper Egyptian form three years previously. 



I have therefore nothing to alter or revise in ray con- 

 clusions as given in my former paper. 



Yours truly, 



Giza, Egypt. - MiCHAEL J. NiCOLL. 



28 May, 1918. 



