Letters, Announcements, ^c. 107 



might render to science by so doing, besides the pleasure of 

 bringing away a lasting rememberance of their expedition. 

 I am, &c., 



E. L. Layard. 



Sir, — The accompanying very interesting letter from my 

 friend Dr. Exton has reference to the habits of a bird whose 

 home is in in a part of South Africa little visited by Eu- 

 ropeans, and still less by any who make ornithology their 

 study. 



I am proud to say Dr. Exton has been one of the many who 

 have been induced to take up the pursuit in South Africa in 

 consequence of the publication of my book. Armed only with 

 it and a copy of Van der Hoeven, he identified correctly (with, I 

 think, three exceptions) all the birds he collected in the wild 

 country about Kanye, in the Bechuana country (lat. 24° 50' S., 

 long. 25° 40' E.), and in the Matabili Veldt. In the most 

 generous manner he presented the whole of his collection, 

 amounting to over a hundred species, to the Cape-Town and 

 Albany Museums, where they are much prized, consisting, as 

 they do, of some of our rarest species. 



I am. Sir, yours faithfully, 



E. L. Layard. 



Cape Town, 2otli May, 1870. 



Sir, — I beg leave to call your attention to a question raised 

 by P. L. Sclater, Esq., of the Zoological Society of London, 

 relative to the crest of Schizorhis. In a paper by Mr. Sclater, 

 in no. 1 of the 2nd volume of the ' Student and Intellectual 

 Observer,' on " Turacoes and their distribution/' there occurs 

 the following passage : — 



" Although some of these birds — the false Turacoes {Schizo- 

 rhis) — are provided with a crest, / doubt whether that organ is 

 ever erected and depressed after the manner of the true Tura- 

 coes." 



With regard to S. concolor, I have had frequent opportunity 

 of noticing the elevation and depression of the crest as one of 

 the most common habits of the bird. 



