Ornithological Acquisitions of the British Museum. 327 



Australia. Agaiust this last statement we have Dr. Sclater's 

 authority, who (P. Z. S. 1877, p. 109) assigns one skin re- 

 ceived from the Rev. Mr. Brown to M. spilorrhoa. As to 

 the specimens from New Ireland and Duke-of-York Island 

 being M. luctuosa, certainly this cannot be the case, as that 

 species is strictly confined to Celebes ; neither am I inclined 

 to believe that it is M. bicolor. 



Macropygia AMBOiNENsis (Linn.), apud Ramsay, /. c. 

 p. 203. 



The birds thus named by Mr. Ramsay must be M. doreya, 

 Bp., or M. carteretia, Bp., and not M. amboinensis (Linn.), 

 which is peculiar to the Amboyna group. 



Grall^. 



Parra nov.e-guinevE, Ramsay, sp. nov., /. c. p. 298. 



I have not seen the New-Guinea bird. Mr. Ramsay does 

 not point out in what respect it differs from the Australian 

 Parra yalUnacea. 



XXVIII. Rejjort on the Ornithological Acquisitions of the 

 British Museum in 1878. 

 In the Annual Report on the British Museum presented 

 to the House of Commons'^ we find among the " most im- 

 portant acquisitions " in the Zoological Department the 

 following specially noticed : — 



1. A selected series from the collection of African birds, 

 formed by, and formerly in the possession of, R. B. Sharpe,Esq, 

 This series includes those specimens only which were desi- 

 derata in the British Museum, and consists of 3444 named 

 specimens, and 54 types. This purchase has been spread 

 over a period of five years. 



* Account " of the Income and Expenditure of the British Museum 

 (Special Trust Funds), for the Financial Year ended the 31st day of 

 March, 1879:" 



And, " Return of the number of Persons admitted to visit the Museum 

 in each Year from 1873 to 1878, both Years inclusive ; together with a 

 Statement of the Progress made in the Arrangement of the Collections, 

 and an Account of Objects added to them in the year 1878." 



