Letters , Extracts, Notices, fyc. 217 
This is a series of field-notes on the birds of Natal 
and Zululand, some of which have already appeared in the 
columns of this Journal (see Ibis, 1897, pp. 400, 495; 1898, 
p. 216). They contain many interesting particulars on the 
habits of the feathered creatures of this district, in which 
the writers have had a long and varied experience. 
The figure of Stactolcema woodwardi (Ibis, 1897, pi. x.) is 
repeated in this volume. 
XII.— Letters , Extracts , Notices , fyc. 
We have received the following letters, addressed “to the 
Editors of 4 The Ibis ’ 
Sirs, —I have just received my copy of the last number of 
s The Ibis/ and I ask you to rectify the notice on the habitat 
of Gisella jheringi Sharpe. The example sent by me to the 
British Museum was not from S. Paulo, but was obtained by 
Mr. Chr. Euler in the colony of S. Lourengo, Bio Grande 
do Sul. The second example, from S. Paulo, is in our 
Museum, stuffed. The description of it agrees with that of 
Dr. Sharpe, but I am not informed by the British Museum 
Catalogue as to the tail of G. harrisi. Our example has the 
last or subterminal of the three caudal bars buff, and the 
white spots of the upper tail-coverts confluent into bars. 
Its measurements are 139 mm. of the wing, 77 mm. of the 
tail. 
Yours &c., 
S. Paulo, H. von Jhering. 
August 12th, 1899. 
Sirs, — I am sorry to say that the native “ shooting-men ” 
have at last found out that there is a silver-mine in the 
“ plume trade,” with the result that one of the greatest 
ornaments of our landscapes is apparently doomed to 
destruction. 
It was a pretty sight in the spring to see a stretch of 
paddy-fields with the brilliant green of the young rice 
