238 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 



white feathers, spotted with black, like those of the Song-Thrush ; 

 the feathers under the tail were quite white. After a short time 

 the yellowish circle of the neck disappeared. In July of the 

 present year it began to change the feathers of the lower parts, 

 and in September it already resembled very nearly the Song- 

 Thrush, retaining only a few black feathers on the breast, which 

 shortly disappeared. I was in expectation of future changes, 

 when early in October it escaped. It ate chopped meat and 

 the flour of maize. In spring it did not sing ; its zit was like 

 that of the Song-Thrush. 



I believe it to be a cross of the Song-Thrush and the Black- 

 bird [Tardus merula). 



Yours, &c.. 



Dr. Thomas Salvadori. 



The following extract is from a letter of Professor Baird, 

 dated Washington, December 26 : — 



" Mr. Kennicott has returned from his nearly four years' 

 absence in Arctic America. His last collections have not yet 

 reached us, but will be here in a few weeks. They embrace 

 many valuable things, especially in the line of eggs. On their 

 arrival, I will write you further on the subject. 



"Another item of intelligence is that Mr. Xantus, so well 

 known by his labours at Fort Tejon and Cape St. Lucas, has 

 just left Washington for Manzanilla, on the west coast of Mexico, 

 in the capacity of U. S. Consul, to reside a year or two. He 

 has taken out an enormous outfit, and is prepared to capture 

 everything the country affords. He will undoubtedly collect 

 thousands of skins of birds, and his collection will be the means 

 of identifying the geographical distribution of Mexican birds 

 with great precision. He will probably get many new and rare 

 species; and if he extends his travels to the islands of Tres 

 Marias, Locorro, &c., as is probable, the results will be still 

 more important. We really know almost nothing of the west 

 part of Mexico, north of Acapulco, no large collection having 

 ever been made there. Mr. Xantus visited Mazatlan in the 

 summer of 1861, and in a week's time got twelve new species of 



