Letters, Announcements, ^c. ^11 



gefiederte Welt' for this year (Jahrg. xi. p. 6), Dr. Carl 

 Russ describes a supposed new specis of Eslrelda under the 

 name JEgintha fuchsi, based upon four living specimens, 

 supposed to have been received from West Africa. It is 

 allied to Estrelda cinerea and E. melpoda. 



The Birds of Uganda. — In Messrs. Wilson and Felkin's 

 most interesting new work on Uganda, the former writer 

 gives us the following account of its birds : — " Among birds 

 the most noticeable are the Parrots, Vultures, Kites, and 

 Fish-Eagles. There are two species of the former, one being 

 the Grey Parrot, famed for its powers of talking, the other a 

 small yellow-and-green bird. The first of these Parrots is 

 very common among the forests on the shores of the lake, 

 and is often seen in flocks of two or three hundred. The Vul- 

 tures are the scavengers of the towns and large villages, and 

 there are always great numbers of them about the capital, 

 where they feed on the victims of the executioners. Kites 

 abound everywhere, and are very destructive to the chickens. 

 The finest bii'd in Uganda is undoubtedly the White-headed 

 Fish-Eagle [Haliaetus vocifer), which is found on the Nyanza 

 and the various streams where fish exist. Guinea-fowl are 

 numerous in the jungle, and afi'ord good sport, in addition to 

 which their flesh is excellent eating; but they require heavy 

 shot to bring them down. On the lake quantities of water- 

 fowl are met with — Ducks, Geese, Storks, Cranes, the Sacred 

 and Glossy Ibises, Darters, Herons, Gulls, and the gorgeous 

 Scarlet Flamingo " *. 



It is to be lamented that no ornithological collector has 

 yet penetrated to Lake Albert Nyanza. 



Bird-life in the Pribylov Islands. — In his most interesting 

 memoir on the Fur- Seal Islands of Alaska, lately issued by 

 the Smithsonian Institution, Mr. Henry W. Elliot speaks of 

 the arrival of the summer birds as follows : — 



''After the dead silence of a long ice-bound winter, the 



* Wilson and Felkin's ' Uganda and the Egyptian Soudan ' (London, 

 1882, 2 vols. 8vo), vol. i. p. 169. 



SER. IV. VOL. VI. 2 K 



