124 Letters, Announcements , ^c. 



Rare Birds in Andalucia. — Lord Lilford writes : — " It may 

 interest you to hear that I have lately received a pair of 

 Cursorius galUcus, which were killed in the Marisma de 

 Lebrija_, not far above San Lucar de Barrameda, on 20th 

 August ult. These are the first that I have received from 

 Spain, though the bird has been now and then met with 

 near Malaga. I also received three good skins of Hydro- 

 chelidon leucoptera from the Goto de Donana, on the other 

 side of the Guadalquivir. Neither Irby nor I ever obtained 

 this bird from Andalucia before. I believe that it has been 

 met with at Valencia, or rather at the Albufera, about seven 

 miles from that town ; but the Guadalquivir is very far west 

 for this eastern species. '•* 



The Birds of the Bonin Islmids. — The Bonin group of 

 islands, which lie north of the Carolines and some 500 miles 

 S.E. of Japan, seem to have been entirely neglected by natu- 

 ralists since they were visited in 1828 by F. H. v. Kittlitz. 

 Kittlitz tells us that he met with fifteen species of birds in 

 the Bonin Islands, besides ascertaining the existence of nine 

 or ten others. In his memoir {' Ueber die Vogel der Insel- 

 gruppe von Bonin-sima,' Mem. pres. Acad. Sc. St. Peters- 

 bourg, i. p. 231, 1831) he describes and figures several re- 

 markable and little-known species [Uos familiaris, Si/lvia 

 diphone, Fringilla papa, Oriolus squamiceps) peculiar to the 

 group. The Bonin Islands being now Japanese territory 

 and of easy access, we trust that some of our fellow- workers 

 in Japan will not overlook this outlyiog part of their field of 

 operations. A fresh investigation of this remote group 

 would supply specimens of species scarcely known to us, and 

 probably lead to the discovery of others new to science. 



Dr. Fischer's East-African Collections. — Dr. G. A. Fischer 

 (of whose expedition we spoke in our last issue, ' Ibis/ 1883, 

 p. 583) has returned to Berlin with his collections from the 

 Masai country and the base of Kilima-ndjaro. There are 

 said to be about thirty species of birds new to science in the 

 series, and amongst them the finest Touracou {Corythaix) yet 

 discovered. A special meeting of the Deutsche Ornitho- 

 logische Gesellschaft has been held to do him honour. 



