688 Letters, Ea^tracts, and Notes. 



There are now three living Shoe-bills in the Zoological 

 Gardens at Giza and one in the Government House Garden 

 at Khartoum. 



There are eggs of Balaniceps in the British Museum, 

 obtained by Petherick. They are described as of a blunt 

 oval shape, and white in colour, and without any gloss 

 (3-6 X 2-3 inches).— P. L. S. 



Courts/lip of the Redshank. — In a recently issued number 

 of the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London •' 

 (1912, part iii. p. 647) will be found an article that will 

 much interest many of our readers. It gives a f'.ill account 

 of the courtship of the Redshank [Totnnus catidris), as 

 observed by the writer (Mr. Julian S. Huxley, Lecturer 

 at Balliol College, Oxford) last spring in a secluded corner 

 of North Wales, of which the exact position is prudently 

 withheld, though we are told that -it is in the " northern 

 half of the Bay of Cardigan.^' The liedshank is supposed 

 to be a well-known species, but when Mr. Huxley returned 

 to " civilization and libraries " he found, to his great surprise, 

 that the observations already recorded on this subject were 

 " either fragmentary or inaccurate.^' The only writer on it 

 that could be found was our friend Mr. F. C. Selous, who 

 has contributed " a fairly complete account of it " to the 

 ' Zoologist' of 1906. But INIr. Huxley intends to continue 

 his own observations on this attractive subject " when 

 opportunity offers.'' 



New List of British Birds. — A new list of British Birds 

 with the names " revised strictly in accordance with the 

 International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature " has been 

 drawn up by four well-knoAvn Ornithologists (Dr. Ilartert 

 and Messrs. Jourdain, N. C. Ticehurst and Witherby) and 

 has been published (as will be seen in our advertisements) by 

 Messrs. Witherby and Co. It is ))ro[)osed to offer some 

 remarks on this work in the next numl)er of ^ The Ibis.' 



