Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 771 



XXXITI. — Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



We have received the following letter addressed " To the 

 Editors of 'The Ibis'^^— 



Sirs, — With reference to ^h\ D. A. Banrerman's notes 

 on Pytclia nitidula ('Ibis/ 1910^ p. G81), it may interest 

 \\\m, and other readers of the Journal, to know that 

 there is a pair of that species in this Museum, obtained 

 recently by Mr. H. ]\I. MiUar on the outskirts of the 

 town. They are well mounted and in good plumage. 



On comparing them with the plate and descriptions given 

 by jNIr. Bannerman based upon British East African 

 examples, they appear to difter in the following respects : — 



Male. The chest is olive-green, only a little lighter than 

 the i)ack, and without the wash of scarlet, or orange as it 

 appears in the figure. The upper tail-coverts are of a more 

 golden olive than the back, but they are not cinnamon-brown 

 asdepicted in the plate. Dimensions : — Total length 4 inches, 

 wing 2, tail 1*4, tarsus '6. 



Female. The chest is pale olive-green with a scarcely 

 l)erceptible suffusion of butf, very difterent from that of the 

 female as shown in the plate. Dimensions : — Total length 

 4 inches, wing 2, tail 1*2, tarsus "G. 



From these facts it would appear that tlie northern form 



of this bird can hardly be considered identical with 



P. nitidula, if Durban examples are taken as typical of 



the latter. 



I am, Sirs, yours &c., 



E. C. Chubb. 



Durban Museum, Natal, 

 22od July. 1911. 



Report on the British Museum, 1911. — The nsual *' Return'' 

 to Parliament of the British Museum for 1910 states that 

 the acquisition in the Class '' Aves " in that year amounted 

 to 9377 specimens. Of these the most noteworthy were as 

 follows : — 



Six Harlequin Ducks [Cosmonetta histrionicu) in eclipse 

 plumage: IG birds from Co. Sligo, Ireland, including the 



