Letters, Announcements, ^c. 611 



recent papers or remarks concerning it which I may have 

 overlooked. Should there be any skeletons of this bird in 

 London I hope Mr. Forbes will devote some attention to 

 them. 



There is no doubt that Pedionomus torquatus is one of the 

 most remarkable forms of that interesting "region^' where 

 Swans are black and Parrots take to killing sheep ! ! 



I am^ Sir^ yours, 



W. V. Legge. 



Aberstwytli, July 1882. 



22 Courtfield Gardens, S.W,, 

 25 August, 1882. 



Sirs, — Prof. Newton has been kind enough to point out to 

 me that the account of the destruction of the first edition of 

 Pallas's ' Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica/ to which I alluded in 

 the last number of ' The Ibis ' (p. 425), is a myth. He has 

 also lent me a Report presented to the Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences in St. Petersburg in 1831 by Dr. K. E, von Baer, in 

 which the history of this important work is detailed at some 

 length. A brief abstract of the story (romantic enough, if 

 space could be spared for the details) may be interesting, and 

 worth recording in English. 



From 1767 to 1795 Pallas devoted himself to the collection 

 of materials for a complete Zoology of Siberia. At the date 

 last mentioned he retired to the Crimea to arrange and com- 

 plete his manuscript. In 1803 he advised the Academy that 

 the work was half finished, and requested them to arrange for 

 the engraving of the plates with his friend Geissler, of Leipsig, 

 who had travelled with him in the capacity of artist in South 

 Russia in 1793 and 1794. In 1806 Pallas sent the MS. of 

 the first half of his work, containing the Mammals and Birds 

 to the Academy, and with it 121 plates of drawings to be 

 engraved. The printing of the book in two volumes was 

 begun in 1807 and finished in 1809 ; but the plates were not 

 done. Owing to the state of Europe, poor Geissler got into 

 difficulties, and Pallas's plates were driven to the pawn- 

 brokers'. As long as he lived Pallas did what he could 



