330 Letters, Extracts j and Notesi 



XVIII. — Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



We have received the following letters addressed '' to the 

 Editor '':— 



Sir, — I have recently been reading the paper by Mn 

 David A. Bannerman on the birds of Gran Canaria whidh 

 appeared in *The Ibis' for October 1912. As there are 

 several points which I would like to comment upon, I should 

 be much obliged if you would grant me space to do so. 



On pages 565-6 Mr. Bannerman wrote that after the ac- 

 count which I gave of the Charco (vide Orn. Jahrb. xxi. 1910, 

 p. 82) he had expected to see several Coots and Moorhens, 

 but that they were remarkably scarce and^ continuing, wi*ites 

 *' Certainly it is not possible now in this ' Charco' to come 

 upon the pretty picture of bird4ife which Herr von Thanner 

 portrayed in his paper." I see that Mr. Bannerman does 

 not understand what I meant to convey. I particularly 

 mentioned that there were only a few or single pairs of these 

 birds. 



On page 586 Mr. Bannerman wrote of Anas marmorata^ 

 *' They are occasionally shot at Maspalomas, where Herr von 

 Thanner jjrocured specimens," This is a mistake ; I never 

 wrote that I had actually killed this Duck, as the kind 

 proprietor, Don Pedro Castillo, forbade me to do so. I am 

 sorry to see that a member of Mr. Bannerman's party shot 

 a specimen. 



Referring to Accipiter nisus^ on page 589, Mr. Bannerman 

 did not meet with this bird in the island. Certainly, 

 as he remarked, the Sparrow-Hawk is very rare, although 

 during my last visit to the island in 1912 I found it 

 breeding at the " Cueva de las Ninas," where I had pre- 

 viously noticed a single female during my first visit to 

 this spot. This is the place where Mr. Bannei*man camped 

 in 1910 and 1911. Herr Polatzek mentions that he has 

 killed a female of this species near San Matej and found 



