CATALOGUE OF A COLLECTIOi^ OF BIRDS MADE BY 

 DOCTOE W. L. ABBOTT IX KASHMIR, BALTISTAN AXD 

 LADAK, WITH KOTES ON SOME OF THE SPECIES, AXD 

 A DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF CYANECULA. 



By Charles W. Richmond, 



Assistant Curator of the Department of Birds, 



For several years past, the United States National Museum has been 

 the recipient of valuable collections in various branches of natural 

 history and ethnology, gathered by the patriotic American naturalist and 

 explorer. Doctor W. L. Abbott, of Philadelphia, during his travels in 

 various parts of the Old World. Mount Kilimanjaro and the lowlands 

 of Taveta, East Africa, were the scenes of his first investigations, where 

 for two years he was actively at work, and whence he sent to the 

 Museum over a thousand bird skins and a large quantity of other ma- 

 terial. He subsequently visited the Seychelles Archipelago in the early 

 part of 1890, and other islands to the westward of that group during 

 the latter half of 1892, pausing a short time in Madagascar on his way, 

 and sending collections from time to time to the National Museum, as 

 had been his custom. The collection of birds formed in the Seychelles 

 and other islands in that vicinity has been studied by Mr. Eidgwa^, 

 who has described some new species contained therein.^ A more 

 exhaustive account of the birds of this group by the same author is 

 now in course of preparation and will doubtless soon be completed. 

 The birds' eggs have been reported on by Major Bendire. Various 

 obstacles have heretofore prevented a study of the birds of tlie African 

 collections, but it is now thought probable that a thorough examina- 

 tion of these may be effected in the near future. Mr. True has already 

 given a detailed account of the mammals. 



Ui)on concluding his explorations in the Seychelles, Dr. Abbott visited 

 Kashmir and Ladak, in northern India, and spent parts of the years 

 1891-1894 in travel and in the accumulation of material illustrating the 

 natural history and ethnology of that region. In July, 1893, a journey 



'Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVI, No. 953, pp. 597-600, Aug, 16, 1893; XVII, No. 1008, 

 pp. 371-373, Nov. 15, 1894. 



Proceedings of the United States Kational Museum, Vol. XVIII — No. 1078. 



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