Letters, Announcements, S^c. 223 



time ago a notice in ' The Field ' mentioning the dirty state of 

 the nest before this would have been caused by the young; and 

 if my idea is correct the explanation is simple. I never saw the 

 males go inside the holes in which the nests were ; and I never 

 saw either of the females outside during the time they were 

 hatching, though of course it is possible they may have gone 

 out. If I should live, I will next spring observe more carefully ; 

 but it was a good while before I noticed the absence of the 

 females this year. Last year I had one nest only in the 

 verandah, and another in the verandah of my office. The 

 Hoopoe, I know, breeds in France ; and possibly you may be 

 able to find out if any notice of this fact has been taken." 



Professor Baird has kindly transmitted to us some extracts 

 from old or little-known works bearing reference to the former 

 occurrence of Alca impennis on the coast of America. The 

 earliest of these is from " A discourse and discovery of New- 

 found-land, etc., written by Capitaine Richard Whitbourne of 

 Exmouth in the County of Devon * * * Imprinted at London, 

 by Felix Kinston, 1622," and is as follows : — 



" There are also birds that live by prey, as Ravens, Gripes 

 [Eagles], Crowes, etc. For water fowle there is certainly so 

 good and as much variety as in any part of the world, as geese, 

 ducks, pigeons, gulls, Penguins, and many other sorts. 



" These penguins are as bigge as geese, and fly not, for they 

 have but a little short wing, and they multiply so infinitely upon 

 a certain Hand that men drive them from thenes upon a boord 

 into their boats by hundreds at a time, as if God had made the 

 innocency of so poor a creature to become such an admirable 

 instrument for the sustentation of man." 



Another from "NewEnglauds rarities discovered in birds, 

 beasts, fishes, serpents, and plants of that country, etc. By 

 John Josselyn Gent : London, 1672," runs thus : — 



''The wobble an ill-shaped fowl, having no long feathers in 

 their pinions which is the reason why they cannot fly, not much 

 under the Penguin ; they are iu the spring very fat or rather 

 oyly, but pulled and garbridged and laid to the fire to roast 

 they yield not one drop. 



