Letters . Extracts, and Notes. 
215 
to British ornithologists. But they will be pleased with the 
dainty figures and brilliant colours—in some cases, we may 
perhaps say, a little too brilliant. 
Among the strange forms introduced to us we may call 
attention to the Sand-Partridge (Ammoperdix heyi), which 
is a purely desert species. This, as Mr. Whymper says, 
“ is a most charming, lively little bird, bustling about. You 
rarely see it for long. Even in January it still keeps in 
coveys, running along in and out of the boulders, and very 
quick and agile.” 
It was rather bold of Mr. Whymper to figure the Shoe-bill 
(Balceniceps rex) in a book on Egyptian birds, its true home 
being far away on the White Nile, but, at all events, we are 
given correct figures of its grotesque attitudes, taken from 
the specimens in the Zoological Gardens at Giza. 
In concluding the author gives a list of the names of the 
Egyptian birds known to him—356 in all. 
VIII.— Letters , Extracts, and Notes . 
We have received the following letters, addressed “ To the 
Editors of ‘ The Ibis ; ” :— 
Sirs, — I wish to bring to your notice that a short time 
ago, in dealing with my specimens of the Mediterranean 
Falcons (Falcopumeus and its nearly allied forms), I quoted 
several books, amongst them the excellent work on the f Birds 
of Tunisia/ by the well-known ornithologist Mr. Whitaker, 
who states that he did not include the Saker ( Hierofalco 
cherrug) for Tunisia* *. 
Afterwards I recollected that amongst the numerous 
specimens of the Saker in my collection there was one that 
* “I have never obtained or heard of the Saker Falcon having been 
met with in. Tunisia, but it may occur there occasionally as a straggler, 
because examples of it are not unfrequently obtained in Italy, and 
specimens are to be found in most museums of any importance in that 
country ” (Whitaker, B. of Tunisia, 1905, vol. ii. p. 138j. 
