560 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. [Ibis, 



With a view to finding out whether any of these specimens 

 were really F. peregrinns, I wrote to Mr. J. H. Gurney (jun.) 

 asking him to kindly examine tlie series in tlie Norwich 

 Museum and let me know the result. This he has very 

 kindly done, and I quote the following from a letter from 

 him which I have just received: — "The Norwich Museum 

 contains two Peregrine Falcons from South Africa. No. 1, 

 marked ' Cap de Bonne Esperance/ is certainly a true- 

 Peregrine, an old skin from Jules Verreaux, but Yerreaux's 

 localities are not to be relied on. The other (No. 13), a fine 

 adult female^ marked 'Natal, W. Gueinzius^ — bought at a 

 sale at Stevens's — is also a Peregrine, I feel sure. It is 

 altogether too big for Falco minor, the wing from carpal 

 joint being 14 inches and the tarsus 1"9. It is a heavily 

 spotted bird, the upper chest (which is usually white in 

 British specimens) being also marked with dark pear-shaped 

 spots .... almost up to the chin.'^ It is no doubt the 

 specimen mentioned on p. 56 of Layard and Sharpe's * Birds 

 of South Africa/ see also p, 800. 



Now if the two above-mentioned specimens are really 

 South African killed, it will be necessary to include this 

 species in the South African list after all, although I still 

 have doubts as to whether the Peregrine really does occur. 



In connection with my recently published paper on 

 Hieraa'etus ayresi (Ibis, Apvil 1919), I have just received 

 a letter from Mr. W. L. Sclater which contains the following 

 interesting remarks on the subject : — " I have just been 

 looking through our specimens in the Museum, and I quite 

 agree with your views on the matter. 1 am going to 

 Norwich next month and shall have a careful look at the 

 type (of Spizui'tus ayresi) there, and perhaps, if I think 

 necessary, get it to London for comparison. 



"We have in the British Museum only one adult 

 H. ayresi (from Belgian Congo), but several juv. of the 

 specimens noticed at p. 176 of your paper. 



" Sowerby's Aquila ivahlberyi is not Hieraa'etus spilogaster 

 or H. ayresi. So far as I can see it is rightly identified. 



