376 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



shape, and present also something of a contrast in their 

 ground-colours. 



233 Beacon Street, Boston. Thomas M. Brewer. 



P.S. — The readers of ' The Ibis ' may be interested to know 

 that Dr. James C. Merrill, Surgeon in the U.S. Army, who 

 gave us such an interesting paper on the birds of the Rio 

 Grande valley, in Texas, has changed his quarters to new and 

 almost equally promising fields for research. These are to 

 the very upper waters of the Missouri, in Northern Montana. 

 His station is Fort Shaw, situated on a high plateau, at an 

 elevation of some 5000 feet, and close to the eastern slope of 

 the Rocky Mountains. Wliile we cannot expect him to add 

 so many new species to our fauna, he will doubtless do much 

 that is much more desirable — throw light upon the move- 

 ments and habits of many species which are known to us 

 almost wholly by name and dress alone. Fort Shaw is our 

 most northern outpost, and is not far from the border-line. 



Sirs, — I beg you to find room in ''The Ibis ^ for the fol- 

 lowing notes on the recent rediscovery of Notornis mantelli, 

 and on two Cassowaries living now in the Imperial Menagery 

 at Schoenbrunn. 



Herr Hofrath von Hochstetter has had the kindness to com- 

 municate to me a letter received from Dr. J. von Haast, in 

 which the latter announced that at Lake Te Cluan a speci- 

 men oi Noiornis had been caught by dogs. Dr. von Haast had 

 already arranged an expedition to get the rare bird; Dr. W. 

 Buller and the taxidermist Reischcll will accompany him. 

 He is now quite sure that a bird seen by him at a great dis- 

 tance on a former occasion was the Notornis. 



The rich series of living animals brought last summer by 

 Herr Kraus, the indefatigable traveller and collector, from a 

 voyage to Sumatra and Java, which now adorns the Imperial 

 Menagery at Schoenbrunn, contains two young Cassowaries, 

 which I believe to belong undoubtedly to Casuarius beccarii, 

 Sclater'^. They are considerably smaller than C. guleatus; 

 the casque is as yet little elevated ; the plumage black, but with 



* P. Z. S. 1875, pp. 87 & 527, pi. Iviii. 



