240 Journal of Tra7r/ ami Natural ITistory 



That the hobby falcon (Hypotriorchis subbuteo) is occasionally 

 met with in the Cape colony is a fact by no means new to us ; 

 several instances of its occurrence are recorded by Mr Layard, 

 and a specimen having been sent by him to Dr Sclater, the latter 

 gentleman wrote word — " Never before received from the south of 

 the equator." Upon which Mr Layard remarks in a note — "This 

 observation of Mr Sclater's opens up a curious subject of inquiry. 

 Have this and other species only lately found their way down the 

 Continent? Or have they escaped the notice of previous observers? 

 I incline to the former supposition, as I cannot conceive that some 

 of our common species should have escaped the notice of such men 

 as Dr A. Smith and Le Vaillant. Look, for instance, at the extrem.e 

 abundance of Cypselus apus" (C. barbatus) "and Hirundo rustica 

 throughout the colony. How came Le Vaillant not to include 

 them among his swifts and swallows? Surely not because they 

 are European, as he enumerated and figured Cypselus melba" 

 (C. gutturalis), " and other European species," The question of 

 the swifts is decided by their proving to be sufficiently well 

 distinguished as species from their European proximate con- 

 geners. 



The celebrated traveller Le Vaillant is sadly shewn up by Mr 

 Layard. Some of the alleged species of birds, figured and described 

 by Le Vaillant, have proved to be absolutely fictitious, having been 

 founded on made up or compounded museum specimens, certain 

 of which are still extant at Ley den and elsewhere. In many other 

 cases he has figured and described species of birds as occurring in 

 South Africa, which are now well known to be peculiar to far 

 distant regions, as the Melanocorypha tatarica of Northern Asia, 

 and various familiarly known birds of India and of South America, 

 with some also that are peculiar to Madagascar, of which last he 

 even gives the Malagasi appellations in one or two instances. In 

 a note to the descriptions of two Asiatic bulbuls, asserted by 

 Le Vaillant to have been killed by him in Africa, and duly 

 referred to their proper habitats by our industrious author, he 

 remarks : — 



" I have been at some little pains to trace Le Vaillant's footsteps in Southern 

 Africa, in order, if possible, to identify such of the birds that have been intro- 

 duced into his great work as South African, but which are supposed by some to 

 have been obtained from other countries. A statement which appeared some 

 time ago in the serial Household Words, to the effect that Le Vaillant never was 

 in South Africa, also stimulated my desire to obtain full information regarding 

 him. I need not follow him through all his wanderings at this moment. Suffice 



