388 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



Director of the Museum, but no record of it was published, 

 and I now bring it before the notice of readers of ' The Ibis ' 

 in the hope that some student of Neotropical Ornithology 

 may be induced to explore the bird-collection of the Liver- 

 pool Museum, which contains many most interesting forms, 

 especially among the more obscure families, such as the 

 Tyrannidse, Formicariidse, and Dendrocolaptidse. 



Yours &c, 



Herbert C. Robinson 

 Selangor State Museum, {Curator, Selangor State Museum). 



Kuala Lumpor, 



Federated Malay States. 



December 5th, 1905. 



Sirs, — In the current number of 'The Auk' (pp. 26-43) 

 Mr. Jonathan D wight, Junr., calls attention to the small 

 group of Gulls which occupy an intermediate position 

 between the pure white-winged forms, L. glaucus and L. 

 leiccopto'us, and those with black patterns on the primaries. 

 In these species — namely, L. glaucescens, L. nelsoni, and 

 L. Tcumlieni — the pattern on the primaries is of a pale slate- 

 colour, which never disappears. 



Now Mr. J) wight informs us that, though L. leucopterus 

 in adult plumage is almost unknown upon the Atlantic coast 

 of N. America, the adult of L. kumlieni has been repeatedly 

 captured there, as have been more rarely the young ; so that 

 the occurrence of the latter species in Britain might be 

 expected. It may be of interest, therefore, to recall the fact 

 that I read a paper on L. kumlieni before the Royal Physical 

 Society of Edinburgh on Jan. 21st, 1885, and exhibited the 

 first specimen recognised in this country, which had been 

 brought by a whaler from Cumberland Inlet to Dundee and 

 had been purchased by me from Mr. P. Henderson of that 

 town. I placed the bird in the collection of Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, who verified my identification, and referred to 

 the specimen in the 'Catalogue of the Birds in the British 

 Museum/ vol. xxv. p. 289, and in that Museum the collection 

 is now incorporated. 



