Correspondence. 
123 
success in catching and keeping Sunbirds was probably exceeded by few 
aviculturists. On the occaiion of our last conversation, a few days before 
his death, he was discussing the making of a proposed shipment of live birds to 
England in the near future. 
The irony of Pcrcival's death was that his eldest brother, the Game 
Warden of this Colony, arrived from England to find his brotfier unconscious 
and dying. 
Narobi, B.E. Africa; I7:iii. :2i. E. W. HARPER. 
[The above is part of a private letter to myself, and I thought the sad 
record of our member's death could be best recorded by printing the above. 
1 have k)st a respected and esteemed friend. During his visit to me ve 
arranged for live birds, especially Ntctarmidie, to be shipped this spring and 
summer, and he took out with him a full equipment to this end. I aUo 
arranged with him to contribute a series of field notes on the birds of B.E. 
Africa to Bird Notes, also his experience of keeping them in captivity. 
The day before he sailed I spent with him in London, and little thought, wlu-n 
we said good-bye, it was the long, last farewell. To his sorrowing relatives 
we express our sincere sympathy. — Ed.!J 
0 
SEX DISTINCTION OF JAVAN PARRAKEET, ETC. 
Sir, — There is a printer's error in my note on parrot calls, page 99 of 
last issue, which rather destroys the sense of one sentence, viz : " Even those 
that have been tamed." This should read: even those which have not been 
tamed. 
(The Marquis of) TAVISTOCK. 
^ 
A SEMI-ALBINO CHAFFINCH. 
Sir, — You asked me to let you know some particulars about a curious 
coloured Cliaftincli 1 caug^ht here some time ago and put in my aviray. 
In October 1920 I noticed, among the chaffinches which flocked in my 
garden to feed on the beech mast, one that had a great deal of white in its 
plumage than is normal. I put down some canary seed under a h>eech tree 
for a few days, and, when I saw that the chaffinches came and ate it regularly 
as soon as it was put down, I put a large sparrow-trap I have when they 
became accustomed to feed on the seed ; but, for a few days, although 1 
caught plenty of ordinary chaffinches, I did not capture the one I wanted. 
At last patience was rewarded, and one morning he was a prisoner. He 
is marked in a very peculiar way : his head and body have a lot of white upon 
tlicm, giving one the impression that he is a dirty white bird at a distance : 
liul wlicn you get nearer you see that he has a imniber of the russel feathers 
ol the cock chaffinch on his breast, and )ellow feathers on his hack and wing.-,; 
he has dark feathers in his tail and among his flight feathers, and a certain 
