Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, fyc. 207 
stance was evidently not attained, as the keeper’s wife saw it 
sitting quietly on the paling of the garden, and looking as 
sheepish as Falcons usually do when they miss their quarry. 
The colouring of the soft parts was as follows :—Irides bright 
yellow; bill bluish, with a blackish-brown tip ; cere and gape 
obscure yellow; legs and toes pale yellow. 
I have been particular in describing the colouring of the soft 
parts, because these points, which are often of great interest, are 
too frequently neglected; and I would suggest to those who 
have the opportunity of observing our birds in a state of nature, 
the desirability of their carefully attending to and recording the 
colouring of the soft parts, from life, or immediately after death, 
of some of our rarer, and indeed of even our commoner birds, 
such as the Rails, Crakes, Sand-pipers, Ducks,and Sea-birds, and 
especially of their dress and colouring during the first few days 
of their existence, the downy or infantine dress being often 
most interesting, and comparatively unknown. 
I am, Sir, 
Yours very obediently, 
John Gould. 
20 Broad-street, Golden-square, W. 
Feb. 3, 1859. 
To the Editor of the Ibis . 
Sir, —In Mr. E. C. Taylor’s interesting paper in the first 
Number of f The Ibis/ entitled “Ornithological Reminiscences of 
Egypt/’ that gentleman remarks, that in Milvus cegyptius “ the 
beak is pale straw-colour and the irides are brown, character¬ 
istics which at once distinguish it from Milvus ater of Europe, 
which has the beak black and the irides yellow.” I have now in 
my possession living specimens of both these species. I am able 
to state, that in both of them the irides are brown, the only 
difference between them in this respect being that the irides 
are a darker brown in Milvus ater than they are in Milvus 
cegyptius. 
J. H. Gurney. 
Catton Hall, Norwich, 
Feb. 18, 1859. 
