478 Letters, Extracts, Notices, 5)C. 



sound, leaving jagged rocks briefly exposed in its wake. The 

 entrance to the chamber where the birds live is about 10 

 feet high, 12 feet wide at the bottom, and 50 feet long. The 

 chamber is about 40 feet in diameter at its base and 35 feet 

 high. A coloured man was employed to take us in in his 

 canoe. Mr. Morrison assisted in the management of it, 

 while Mr. Nye and myself held our guns in readiness. We 

 were backed in about 35 feet, when a breaker boarded us, half 

 filling the canoe with water, and we came out as soon as 

 possible. The cauoe being too heavily loaded, I got out, and 

 the others went in again. This time Mr. Nye succeeded in 

 shooting two birds, but before he could secure them another 

 breaker boarded them, and again partly filled the boat. The 

 swells becoming heavier, we considered it unsafe to venture 

 into the cave again ; however,being very desirous of obtaining 

 the birds, we adopted another plan, which was to shoot them 

 as they came out at night. Captain Tanner thought well of 

 this and went back to the ship, leaving Mr. Nye and myself 

 to carry out the plan, with Mr. Morrison's assistance, at whose 

 house the greater part of the afternoon was pleasantly spent. 

 Towards night we went into a grove of cocoanut-palms and 

 killed a number of birds. Before dark we were again at the 

 cave in a canoe. Mr. Nye landed and obtained as good a 

 position as the nature of the ground would allow, while I 

 remained in the boat near the cave to shoot as best I could 

 against the face of the precipitous hill which rises above it. 

 The birds did not come out until after dark, Avhen it was 

 possible to see them only against the sky. Nevertheless, 

 Mr. Nye killed two, only one of which was recovered, and 

 that after it had been in the water for half an hour." 



Important Additions to the New York Museum. — We learn 

 from the July No. of ' The Auk ' that the American Museum 

 of Natural History of New York City has recently received 

 several important additions to the Department of Ornithology. 

 One of these is the acquisition by presentation of Mr. D. G. 

 Elliot's superb collection of Humming-birds, numbei"ing over 

 400 species, represented by about 2000 specimens, and in- 



