480 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, &^c. 



the deceased are anxious to dispose of it in its entirety to some 

 public institution or private individual. We trust they may be 

 able to effect this, as it would be very disadvantageous to the 

 cause of science that the typical examples of the numerous 

 species described by the deceased Baron in the * Revue Zoo- 

 logique/ ' Magasin de Zoologie/ and other works should be dis- 

 persed all over the world and become inaccessible to naturalists. 

 Our colleague, M. Jules Verreaux, has lately visited the colleq- 

 tion, and, at the request of the administrators, prepared a com- 

 plete catalogue of it, of which he has kindly sent us a litho- 

 graphed copy. The collection contains 8446 mounted speci- 

 mens, besides 210 in skins, making altogether a total of no less 

 than 8656 specimens of birds, and forming, probably, the largest 

 private collection in existence. It is particularly rich in South- 

 American types, embracing nearly a perfect set of the species 

 obtained by the late M. Alcide d'Orbigny during his South- 

 American travels, and also numerous types of New-Granadian 

 species. There are also some very remarkable Madagascar types 

 in the series, such as Atelornis squamigera, Brachypteracias pit- 

 toides, and Vanga xenopiy'ostris, the last species being, we be- 

 lieve, unrepresented in every other museum. 



Our correspondent, Mr. Alfred Newton, begs us to state that 

 he is deferring to our next Number the promised account {vide 

 antea, p. 376) of the late extraordinary visitation of Syrrhaptes 

 paradoxus, in the hope of obtaining information which will enable 

 him to trace the movement across the continent of Europe. 

 We should be glad to receive any particulars that will tend to 

 throw light on this curious subject. Meanwhile we may men- 

 tion that, as we learn from Mr, Newton, this species has actually 

 bred during the past summer in Denmark, a circumstance which 

 renders the wholesale slaughter of it that has taken place in the 

 British Islands still more to be regretted. 



We rejoice to learn that Mr. H. B. Tristram has determined 

 upon carrying out his long-cherished scheme of revisiting Pales- 

 tine this ensuing winter. We are sure all our friends and sup- 

 porters will join us in wishing him success in his proposed in- 

 vestigations of the Fauna and Flora of this interesting country. 



