224 Letters, Announcements, &;c. 



" The Loone is a waterfowl alike in shape to the wobble/' 



Professor Baird remarks that " the author resided for eight 

 years at ' Scarborow ' a hundred leagues to the east of Boston, 

 and speaks of the White Mountains at that time being covered 

 with snow all the year round." 



The third extract we shall quote is from " II Gazettiere 

 Americano, continente un distinto ragguaglio di tutte le parti 

 del nuovo mondo, etc. Tradotto dall' inglese e arricchito di 

 aggiunte note, carte, ermai. Livoruo 1763." 



Under the head of "Terra nuova" occurs the following 

 paragraph (vol. iii. p. 158) : — 



" L^uccello, che si vede nelP annessa tavola [a very good figure 

 of Alca impennis~\ si trova piu frequentemente quivi, che 

 altrove. Quantunque venga comunemente chiamato il Penguino 

 del Nord, e molto differente da quello detto il Penguino del 

 Sud, col quale e stato da alcuni erronearaente confuso. La 

 sua grossezza e simile a quella dell' oca domestica, ed accio se ne 

 possa meglio giudicare, si veddono appie della carta la testa ed 

 il becco, nelle loro vere misure." 



We may here add the information that very recently Mr. 

 Flower, the Curator of the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, has found among the stores of that establishment 

 nearly all the remaining bones of a skeleton of Alca impennis, 

 the existence of which had not been previously suspected, only a 

 few of the more important bones having been exhibited in the 

 Museum. This specimen is believed to have belonged to John 

 Hunter. 



It seems very probable that our suggestion (Ibis, 1865, p. 530) 

 as to the possibility of the Oxynotus of Mauritius being speci- 

 fically distinct from that of Reunion will prove correct. M. 

 Fran9ois Pollen writes to us from St. Denis in the island last 

 named that he has lately visited Mauritius, and on comparing 

 after his return a specimen of Oxynotus ferruyineus, which he 

 obtained while there, with examples of the Reunion bird, he is 

 struck with the differences observable between them ; but as he 

 kindly promises us a further communication on the subject, we 

 need not at present say more about it. 



