384 Letters, Announcements, ^x. 



the moment the setter, who had passed the wall, was at a 

 ' dead set/ I knew there were several birds or some larger 

 game by the general activity and caution shown by the dog. 

 I was soon over the wall, ready for anything. I surveyed 

 my position in a moment. Below me was long grass, on the 

 ledge I had left some thick and high trees, on my right a hill, 

 also with long, rank grass, but no wood. I moved forwards 

 a few paces, but the dog was there like a marble statue. I 

 was very badly placed, for I could not see where the game 

 could be. Up got six Reeves^s Pheasants, splendid birds. I 

 felt certain of two. I am sorry to say, however, I only suc- 

 ceeded in bagging one, which went rolling down the hill in 

 his last struggles. I bounded after him, afraid the dog 

 would mouth the beautiful plumage. The bird I had bagged 

 was a cock, measuring 5 feet 4 inches from the bill to end of 

 tail-feathers. From the time I first came on their scent the 

 distance over which I worked must have been a mile ; I was 

 therefore glad of a rest. The birds had flown in all direc- 

 tions, so there was no use marking them. My left barrel 

 had been ineffectually discharged at a fine cock, which flew 

 straight across the valley." 



Radde's Scientific Expedition in Transcaspia. — The • Times ' 

 informs us that M. Radde, the traveller and naturalist now 

 engaged in a scientific tour in Central Asia, has written the 

 following letter to the Russian paper ' Novosti,'' dated Ask- 

 abad, April 6 (N.S.) : — ''At first the weather was not favour- 

 able. The spring was late this year by at least three or four 

 weeks. Up to the present all my investigations have only 

 resulted in discovering 35 specimens of phanerogamic plants. 

 Our collection of birds consists already of 150 different kinds, 

 among which a Picus scindiacus forms a new addition to 

 Russian fauna.-'"' The 'Novosti^ goes on to state that 

 M. Radde made several excursions from Askabad both 

 into the desert and to the mountains. At Hennab, on the 

 Persian frontier, the expedition encountered a violent snow- 



