126 Letters, Announcements, &^c. 



abandonment of the young Albatros without any apparent means 

 of subsistence from March until October. 



I remain. Sir, 

 Yours obediently, 



Howard Saunders. 



Dobroyde, New South Wales, 

 21 October, 1865. 



Sir, — Having lately had Mr. Gould's 'Birds of Australia' 

 before me, I wish to make a few further remarks on the species 

 of Pardalotus. 



The bird figured on plate 39 (vol. ii.) is undoubtedly the 

 common Sydney species, namely P. affinis. In that district it 

 annually arrives during the month of August, in company with 

 P, punctatus. I have besides shot specimens of the same species 

 on the Bogan and Bell rivers, at Goulburn, Braidwood, and 

 Liverpool, where I also procured the variety with deep orange 

 tips to the spurious wing-feathers. Further, I have received it 

 from Port Denison, along with P. melanocephalus. 



The species figured on plate 38, P. striatus, I have never 

 known to occur near Sydney, and was much surprised at finding 

 it breeding at Cardington. But I have several times received 

 specimens of it from South Australia, where, I am informed, it is 

 very common. This species has the outer webs of the t/m'd to 

 the seventh primaries, inclusive, white, and the tips of the spurious 

 wings deep orange. P. affinis sometimes has the tips of the 

 spurious wings light orange or yellow, and sometimes deep 

 orange, as 1 have before mentioned (Ibis, 1865, p. 298), but 

 never more than the third primary white on the outer edge. 



I have recently met with a colony of P. affinis breeding under 

 circumstances similar to that of P. punctatus, which I before 

 described — namely in a batch of nests of Chelidon ariel, under the 

 the eaves of a house at Springfield near Goulburn. They were 

 not at all disturbed by the return of the rightful owners, but 

 continued to breed in company with them. Mr. M. Faithful 

 informs me that the Pardalotes arrive every year a few weeks 

 before the Martins, and betake themselves to such of the nests 

 of the latter as have not been knocked down. These they line 



