362 Letters, Announcemerds, ^c. 



of the coming transit of Venus in 1874 is Oahu, one of the 

 Sandwich-Islands group. In an article in 'Nature' I have 

 ah-eady put forward the view * that this would be a specially 

 favourable opportunity for a thorough examination of the whole 

 fauna and flora of the Hawaiian Archipelago. I now beg leave 

 to direct the attention of the readers of ' The Ibis ' to my pub- 

 lished remarks on this subject, and to request their advice and 

 assistance in carrying out my plans. 



XXIX. — Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Announce- 

 ments, S^c. 



We have received the following letters addressed to " The 



Editor of ' The Ibis ' " :— 



Copenhagen, 25th March, 1871. 



Sir,— Allow me to make an observation respecting a state- 

 ment in your excellent article " On the Psittacidse of Central 

 America,^' in the last number of ' The Ibis.' It is there re- 

 marked that the Ara macao (L.) has not been sent from INTexico 

 by any naturalist since the days of Deppe and Schiede. It may 

 therefore interest you to learn that my late friend, the well- 

 known botanist and Mexican traveller, Dr. Liebmann, brought 

 back in 1843 a specimen of that species, which is still in the 

 Copenhagen Museum. The exact locality where he got the 

 bird is unfortunately not recorded ; but Liebmann visited only 

 two of the provinces of Mexico, viz. Vera Cruz and Oajaca, and 

 in some sketches on the physical conditions and the vegetation 

 of the Pacific Coasts of Mexico, which he published long ago 

 in a Danish periodical, I find the remark that " Macaws " 

 are abundant in the forests in the vicinity of Guatulco, on the 

 western slope of the great Cordillera. The bird in question 

 may therefore very likely have been obtained in these forests ; 

 and your suggestion that, if Ai^a macao really occurs in Mexico 

 at all, it is only to be found in the forest-country on the Pacific 

 side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, seems so far quite justified. 



Yours truly, 



J. Reinhardt. 



Nature ' for March 24, 1870. 



