462 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, b^c. 



d'Histoire Naturelle de I'lle de Meurice ' in existence for many 

 years^ no connected account has ever appeared of the natural 

 productions of this and the neighbouring islands, and their 

 Fauna may be said to be almost unknown to European zoologists. 

 Knowing Mr. Newton's zeal in the ' good cause/ and the energy 

 he has already shown in the Tropics of the Western Hemisphere, 

 we look forward with much pleasure to the access of zoological 

 knowledge likely to ensue from his residence in so interesting a 

 part of the Eastern world. 



Letters received from Mr. Newton, dated during his voyage down 

 the Red Sea, say — "Altogether I have seen a good many birds ; 

 between Malta and Alexandria, Nightingales {Philomela luscinia), 

 a Salicaria (probably ai'undinacea) , Turtur risorius, and Triiigoides 

 hypoleucus ; between Alexandria and Cairo large flocks of Waders 

 — Totanus glottis and other smaller species, Aquila ncevioides and 

 Milvus cegyptius (common), Falco tinnunculus, apparently migra- 

 ting towards the north-west, as also Merops apiaster. Hit-undo 

 rufula (?) and another species like H. riparia *, the last two in 

 flocks of thousands, evidently migrating, but going the wrong 

 way for this time of year — how is this ? '^ 



The following extracts are from Mr. Eraser's last letters. The 

 first is dated Quito, June 14th : — 



" I propose going hence to Bodegas, there to make my head- 

 quarters, and to hunt the country round as high as Guaranda. 

 You may judge of the state of things here (caused by the block- 

 ade of the coast by the Peruvians and the civil war), when I tell 

 you that I have been trying for a full month to get boxes for my 

 present collection, and have not yet succeeded. We are in doubt 

 whether we shall have provisions to eat in a day or two. The 

 second portion of my Pallatanga collection (which place, by-the- 

 by, is about 4000 feet above the sea-level — about the same as 

 Nanegal) has been blockaded in Riobamba ever since December 

 last, and the same may be said of my collection here. Allow 

 me to suggest your arranging my collections according to the 

 altitudes of the localities, and not as in the list f before me, 



* Probably Cotyle rupestris. — Ed. 



t Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 449 et seq. A separate list of birds from 

 Cuenea is given at p. 450. 



