253 Letters, Announcements, &;c. 



had seen. Next day the little yellow-footed Wilson^s Petrel 

 [Thalassidroma wilsoni) hovered astern throughout the whole 

 day; and on the 14th, in lat. 33° 55' S., long. 9° 47' E., our 

 first Albatros [Diomedea exulans) appeared. From this till our 

 arrival at the Cape, birds were continually in sight ; but it was 

 not until we made the land that any quantity appeared. 



I send you, in addition to the skins, the sternums of both, and 

 a pair of the little Succinea on which they feed. Mr. Mellis has 

 promised to procure the eggs ; and any further information 

 on their habits which he can get shall be sent to you. Dis- 

 section showed that the birds were not breeding. 



I am, &c., 



E. L. Layard. 



Newcastle-on-Tyne, 14th March, 1867. 

 Sir, — In 1838 I sent to the ' Annals of Natural History ' 

 (vol. ii. p. 310) a notice of a small Wren which I had shot at 

 Hartley in the September of that year, and which I identified 

 with the Rcgulus modestus of Mr. Gould's 'Birds of Europe;' 

 but I now find my bird to be distinct from the species there 

 described and figured. The Rev. H. B. Tristram has kindly 

 favoured me with a view of a series of specimens of both species. 

 The one is distinguishable from the other chiefly by a broad 

 belt of pale yellow across the rump ; and that gentleman informs 

 me that the species so characterized was described by Pallas 

 under the name of Motacilla proregulus. The other is given by 

 Gmelin under the denomination of M. superciliosa. Now my 

 specimen has no such belt as I have mentioned across the rump, 

 while that figured by Mr. Gould possesses this character. My 

 bird therefore must stand as Reguloides superciliosus (Gmel.), 



^. kittlitzi differs from j^. pecimrius chiefly, but remarkably, in size. 

 Mr. Gray has been good enough to show us a sufficiently large series of 

 both species, and we do not think any reasonable doubt can be entertained 

 as to their distinctness. Specimens of the true jE. pecuarius from St. 

 Helena, sent under the local name of " Wire-bird," were already in the 

 British Museum. They agree e.xactly with Mr. Layard's examples. — Ed.] 



