LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 417 



wndescribed. Some of our friends were sure it was Otus 

 abyssinicus, of which there is not a specimen in Eng-land. At 

 length I compared my bird with the description, and found it 

 was perfectly distinct. By Mr. Gurney's advice I exhibited 

 it the other day at the Zoological Society, and proposed to 

 name it S^rnium sinaiticum. 



The next morning Mr. Gurney directed my attention to 

 Stray Feathers, 1878, p. 316, which he had just come across, 

 and which, I must confess, having only recently received I had 

 not read, and there I find an exact and admirable description 

 of my bird, under the name of Asio hutleri, under which name 

 it of course now stands. Only it is decidedly (teste Sharpe) 

 a Syrnium, and must be quoted as Spmium hutleri, (Hume). 

 You have thus very properly punished me for my ten years' 

 delay. 



May I add a note on your remarks on my Caprimulgus 

 tamaricis, of which you have oracularly pronounced ' Delenda 

 est^ ? But on what grounds ? It is unfortunate that our 

 friend Brooks should have based his and your decision, not 

 on the type, which he raisrht have seen, and I believe did see, in 

 my collection, or on the other type B. Mus,, where there is 

 also a second specimen obtained by Mr. Jesse in Abyssinia, 

 but on the plate in the * Ibis.' Had he compared any of the 

 specimens with C. asiaticiis he would not have come to the 

 conclusion he has. It is difficult, nay impossible, as we all 

 know, to represent accurately in a cut the delicate markings of 

 the plumage of this family. But the species is as distinct in 

 character of markings from C. asiaticus, as C. (Bgyptius is from 

 C. nificollis. In fact they are parallel pairs of species in these 

 differences as well as in their identity of measurements. I must, 

 therefore, demur to your editorial sentence, pronounced without 

 the presence of the defendant at your bar. 



H. B. Tristram. 



College, Durham, 

 IMhJune 1879. 



[Doubtless Mr, Tristram is correct. — Ed.'] 



Sir, 



The note of Mr. Gurney in your last (August) No. 

 regarding the (supposed) difference in the irides of Otogyps 

 calvus, induces me to relate that a friend of mine some years 

 aero had a pair of White-necked Stork {Dissura episcopa, 

 Bodd.), the irides in one of which, I think the male bird, were 

 of the normal reddish color, while in the other they were of a 

 very pale, almost whitish, hue. The owner was inclined to 



