Letters, Announcements, ^c. 109 



Noumea, New Caledonia, 

 July 6tli, 1878. 



Sirs, — The past month must be marked with a '^ white 

 stoue " in our journal of collecting in New Caledonia ! We 

 have added no less than three species to our collection^ one 

 of them being, I fancy, a very scarce one. Not so scarce as 

 Megaluruliis marice, however, as the solitary specimen of that 

 bird sent home by us some time since [cf. Ibis, 1877, p. 360) 

 still remains unique, as far as we are concerned. Probably 

 we have not yet hit upon its chief habitat, which we suppose, 

 from the specimen seen by L. L. while crossing the great 

 central mountain-chain, to be somewhere in the interior. 



The acquisition of a horse and carriage has enabled us to 

 extend our collecting peregrinations to a greater distance, 

 and to reach some of the pine forests clothing the ravines of 

 Mount Konye. Our first prizes were three (one male and 

 two females) specimens of that very beautiful and peculiar 

 green Dove, 



Lamprotheron holosericea, Temm., 

 ( cJ ? , bill very dark green, legs and feet very dark pink, iris 

 crimson ; length, S, H" 9'", wing 6" 6'", tail 4", tarse 1" 2'"), 

 which we shot near Mr. Strokarck's house, in the Dombea 

 road. Small yellow berries were in the throat of one of the 

 specimens secured (June 13, 1878); the other two had in 

 their crops round blue berries, a couple of inches in diameter, 

 swallowed whole. They appear to be stupid birds, not easily 

 alarmed. At one L. L. snapt his gun three times, then ex- 

 tracted his cartridge and inserted another, the bird sitting 

 still on the tree above him all the while. A second he fired 

 at and slightly wounded, with the ^-of-an-ounce charge of 

 dust-shot in " Long Tom.^^ It flew about fifty yards into 

 some other trees ; and after two or three ineflectual " stalks,^^ 

 he got within range again and shot it. 



We are informed that in the interior these Doves are not 

 uncommon. The natives call them " Anez,^^ and declare they 

 breed in holes of large trees. 



Our next prize is Cyanorhamphus saisseii, Verr., of which 

 we were fortunate enough to secure a pair, male and female. 



