Letters, Extracts, Notices, S^c. 471 



I beg to say that there does not exist, so far as I am 

 aware, a group of islands with the name of Rochussen, but 

 that the species Scolopax rochusseni came from the island of 

 Obi major, an island of some importance to the south of the 

 largest Moluccan island called Halmahera (erroneously often 

 designated as Gilolo, Avliich is only a district of Halmahera). 



Scolopax rochusseni, from Obi major, was called by Prof. 

 Schlegel (Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor de Dierkunde, iii. 

 p. 256, 1866) after the Governor-General Rochussen, in the 

 following passage : — 



*' Nous dedions cette esp^ce curieuse a Son Excellence le 

 Ministre d'etat, M. Rochussen, ancien Gouverneur-general 

 des Indes Neerlandaises et ancien Ministre des Colonies, qui 

 a donne I'elan h, I'exploration recente de la Nouvelle-Guinee 

 par I'expedition da bateau k vapeur FEtna, et en confiant ^ 

 feu Bernstein la mission honorable de faire des recherches 

 scientifiques dans ces contrees lointaines et presque in- 

 connues.^^ 



Yours, 



A. B. Meyer. 



British Museum (Natural History), 



Cromwell Road, London, S.W. 



Sept. 6, 1887. 



Sirs, — From Mr. Seebohm's article on Horsfield's Wood- 

 cock {antea, p. 284) it might be inferred that some of the 

 types of Horsfield's species, formerly in the India Museum, 

 cannot now be found in their present home in the Natural 

 History Museum. I have found the type of the species 

 alluded to by Mr. Seebohm, and I am not aware that any of 

 the Horsfieldian types are actually missing, but they are 

 mostly in the same state as the typical example of Gallinago 

 horsjieldi, viz. moth-eaten and devoid of feathers. It appears 

 that during the many migrations of the India Museum from 

 Leadenhall Street to Fife House and other places, the birds 

 were always packed up, and the Horsfieldian types, being 

 probably old and imperfectly preserved, were utterly de- 

 voured by moths. The gruesome remains were received by 



