206 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, i^c. 



article on the birds of the Philippines, obtained during the same 

 expedition by Dr. Henderson, — which we look forward to with 

 much interest ; as, though some fine collections have been made 

 in those islands, and many new species described, we are desti- 

 tute of any general account of their ornithology. 



A new part of the quarto ' Journal ' of the same Society (vol. iv. 

 part i.) commences with illustrations of three very fine birds 

 which have recently been described by Mr. Cassin : pi. 1, Sele- 

 nidera spectabilis, a new Toucan, from Veragua; pi. 2, Numida 

 plumifera, and pi. 3, Phasidus niger, both from Western Africa. 

 The last bird is peculiarly interesting, as being a new form of the 

 PhasianidcB, a group feebly represented in the Ethiopian Region 

 by the genera Numida and Agelastes. 



XXII. — Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^r. 



We have received the following letters from Mr. Gould and 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney :— 



To the Editor of the Ibis. 

 Sir, — As you will probably be desirous of recording in ' The 

 Ibis^ the capture of any of our rarer British birds, I send a few 

 lines to inform you that a splendid female Goshawk [Astur 

 palumbarius) was shot by one of the keepers of Sir S. Morton 

 Peto, Bart., at Somerleyton, near Lowestoft in Suffolk, on the 

 24th of January in the present year. As I was shooting at 

 Somerleyton at the time, the bird was placed in my hands soon 

 after it was killed, and there can be no doubt, therefore, of its 

 being a truly British specimen. The bird in question was a fine 

 female, and weighed as nearly as possible 2 lbs. 14 oz. Had it 

 lived another month or two at the utmost, it would have assumed 

 its adult livery, a change having already commenced on the 

 throat and upper part of the neck, the feathers on those parts 

 being barred, while those on the breast had the usual elongated 

 markings of immaturity. The bird had been noticed for nearly 

 a month prior to its being shot, and on one occasion visited the 

 neighbourhood of the keeper's house, causing the utmost alarm 

 and consternation among his tame fowls. Its object in this in- 



