Scientific Travellers. 239 



Total length, 18 inches ; bill, 4^; wing, 5f ; tail, 7 ; tarsi, 1|. 

 Hub. The Cordillerian Andes. 



Nearly allied to Pteroglossus [Aulacorhynchus) hmmatopy- 

 gus, from which and from all other members of this section 

 of its family it differs in its much larger size. 



XXX. — Information respecting Scientific Travellers, 



Mr. E. Forbes. 

 We have letters from our friend E. Forbes, Esq., dated from the 

 coast of Lycia in February last. In consequence of the Beacon 

 having remained on that coast for the purpose of procuring the anti- 

 quities discovered by Mr. Fellows at Xanthus, Mr. Forbes had given 

 up his intention of wintering on the Red Sea, and was thus enabled 

 to pursue his researches in the Archipelago and Asia Minor in the 

 fullest and most satisfactory manner. At the date of his letters he 

 was about to make an excursion into the interior of Lycia and Pam- 

 phylia in company with Lieut. Spratt and the Rev. E. Daniell, 

 whose united labours will doubtless throw much new light on the 

 geography, antiquities and natural history of that little known 

 region. After this tour they were to make a detailed survey of 

 Rhodes, and then to join the Beacon on the coast of Crete, where 

 she will spend the summer. Mr. Forbes's observations on the win- 

 ter vegetation of Lycia are given below at page 25 1 . 



In a letter to us, dated Xanthus, Asia Minor, February 28, 1842, 

 he thus writes : — 



" My work has been entirely among the Cyclades and on the 

 south-west coast of Asia Minor. During the summer I made the 

 circuit of the islands, a tour of very great interest, which enabled 

 me to use the dredge with much effect, dredging in a very great 

 number of localities and on as many sorts of sea-bottom as possible. 

 I have since conducted a line of dredgings across the Archipelago and 

 down the coast of Lycia, and have succeeded in obtaining the inha- 

 bitants of depths hitherto unexplored, even from 100 to 220 fathoms. 

 The ground at those depths is very uniform, and there is a deposit 

 of white sediment, probably of great thickness, extending throughout 

 the eastern Mediterranean, the animals living on which do not vary 

 in localities 800 miles apart. At a depth of 200 fathoms I liave found 

 moUusca of the genera Tellina, Corhula and Area alive, Annelides al- 

 lied to Serpula, several Crustacea and Starfishes of the genus Ophio- 

 coma. Zoophytes are found in nearly as great a depth. The mud 

 from above 200 fathoms is full of the shells of Pteropoda and other 

 floaters. Of fishes I have taken a little Goby frequently in depths 

 between 60 and 100 fathoms. The distribution of fishes here is as 

 uniform as that of the lower animals, the same species turning up 

 on the south coast of the Morea as in that of Rhodes. I have made 

 drawings of about a hundred species with a view to exhibit their 

 colouring when alive or fresh taken ; of the greater number of these 

 I have either skins or specimens in spirits. My inquiries for fresh- 



