567 
Letters , Extracts , Notices, fyc. 
species what now appears to be an old one, there was, as I 
have shown, every excuse for such an error of judgment. 
Yours &c., 
British Museum (Natural History), W. R. Ogilvie Grant. 
May 1st, 1900. 
Sirs, —I have lately returned from Palermo, where I 
made a most pleasant visit to my friend Mr. Joseph S. 
Whitaker at his beautiful villa of Malfitano. Among the 
many attractions of the place, one of the most interesting 
is the new Zoological Museum, situated in the beautifully 
wooded grounds, close to the villa, which was opened on the 
first day of the current year, 1900. On visiting the museum, 
after ascending a short flight of white marble steps, and 
passing through a vestibule, one enters a spacious hall or 
gallery, illuminated by top-light. Ranged round the walls 
of this hall are large glass cabinets, containing mounted 
specimens of Italian and Sicilian birds ; also some collections 
of small mammals from Sicily, Tunis, and Marocco, and two 
cabinets containing birds’ eggs. On the walls are some 
magnificent heads of red deer from North Italy, and a good 
collection of gazelle- and antelope-heads from Tunisia. 
Among other trophies which adorn the walls is a fine head 
of the alpine ibex, killed by Umbert, King of Italy, in the 
Yal d’Aosta, and presented by His Majesty to Whitaker. 
There is also the head of a fallow-deer, which was shot by 
Victor Emanuel. In the centre of the hall, directly under 
the skylight, are ten large cabinets, containing the extensive 
collection of birds formed by the late Lord Lilford, which 
was purchased by Whitaker after the death of our late 
esteemed President, and is preserved intact by its present 
owner. This collection, which is very complete as regards 
birds from the Mediterranean district generally, and Spain 
in particular, is especially rich in Raptores, and can also 
boast of a very fine series of skins of that rare Gull, Larus 
audouini, of which there are seven or eight fine specimens, 
all collected by Lord Lilford himself on the coasts of 
Sardinia. The cabinets containing this large collection are 
