198 Letters, Announcements, i^c. 



North-Americau continent. Exceptions to a theory like 

 Mr. Wallace's cannot but be numerous ; and it would be un- 

 reasonable to expect otherwise. But we doubt much if the 

 exceptions so preponderate as to leave no ground for believing 

 in the existence of a substratum of truth in the suggestions 

 Mr. Wallace has put forward to account for the peculiarities 

 of the nidification of the many birds that certainly do conform 

 to the generalizations he has laid down. 



Amongst the '' General Notes " (p. 37) Mr. Ridgway adds 

 the three following Palsearctic birds to the North- American 

 fauna — Parus cinctus, Syrnium lapponicum, and Surnia ulula, 

 specimens of all of which were obtained at St. Michael's, 

 Norton Sound, Alaska, by Mr. Lucien M. Turner, together 

 with a considerable number of other skins. 



34. Go divin- Austen on neiv Birds from the Naga Hills and 

 Assam. 



[Descriptions of supposed new Birds from the Naga Hills and Eastern 

 Assam. By Lt.-Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 ser. 4, vol. xx. p. 519.] 



The two new birds described in this paper are Turdinus 

 naga'ensis, from the Eastern Naga hills, an ally of T. garoensis ; 

 and Staphidia plumbeiceps, from Sadya, Eastern Assam, a 

 close ally of S. torqueola, Swinh. 



XVII. — Letters, Announcements, S^c. 



We have received the following letters, addressed to the 

 Editors of ' The Ibis : '— 



Gentlemen, — In the number of ' The Ibis ' for April 

 1877, which has just reached me, there is a " Note on 

 two Birds from the Fiji Islands," by Count Salvadori, in 

 which he shows that my name for the little Rhipidura of 

 those islands cannot stand, and he does me the honour to 

 rename it after me. I thank him for his kindness, and am 

 quite ready to accept his dictum in this case. As is well 

 known to you, my wandering life has precluded my carrying 

 about a library; and I am always ready to give way in 

 matters of nomenclature. 



With respect, however^ to my statement that the colo- 



