Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, &^c. 191 



tion of birds from the Brampton shoals and adjacent islets, 

 some of which appear to me as yet undescribed. I may be 

 mistaken, but I will furnish you with a short description of 

 these specimens. 



1. Attagen ARIEL ? (Gould, B. Austr. vii. pi. 72.) 



I do not know whether this is the species described by Mr. 

 Gould. The female at least differs from the figure in Gould^s work 

 in having a band round the neck, and the breast white, without 

 any wash of rufous. The air-bag is only indicated by a strip of 

 bare skin hardly ^ inch wide and about 1| inch long, whereas 

 this bag is of very large size in the male bird. M. Jourde 

 informs me that the birds were breeding in the month of July, 

 he having succeeded in securing an egg and a young bird. 



The egg, of which I beg to enclose a sketch, looks more like 

 the egg of a raptorial bird than that of a sea-bird*. The young 

 bird (of about three or four weeks) is white, with black wing- 

 feathers. This bii'd is very plentiful about the Brampton shoals, 

 and builds a nest of a few sticks, seaweed, &c., in the low bushes 

 and small trees. 



2. Rallus pectoralis. (Gould, B. Austr. vi. pi. 76.) 

 There are some Rails on these low islands also which do not 



differ much from our common Rail {Rallies pectoralis). One of 

 them, however, is much darker, and was pointed out to me by 

 M. Jourde as the female. 



3. ToTANUs GRisEOPYGius. (Gould, B. Austr. vi. pi. 38.) 

 These examples are identical, as far as my judgment goes, 



with the above-named Australian species. 



4. NuMENius UROPYGiALis. (Gould, B. Austr. vi. pi. 43.) 

 In these specimens, and in those preserved in the Australian 



Museum from this continent, I cannot detect any difference. 



5. Angus ? 



This bird is very much like ^. melanogenys of G. R. Gray, 

 figured in the ' Genera of Birds,^ but differs from that species 

 in the white ring round the eye, which is partly interrupted. I 



* There is some mistake here, as the egg of the Frigate-bird is white. 

 See Mr. G. C. Taylor's paper in ' Ibis,'.1859, p. 150.— Ed. 



