Letterfi, Announcements, ^c. 237 



progress for the transfer of tliis collection to tlie British 

 Museum. That the terms of transfer have been now finally 

 arranged^ we may assume from the fact that in the Civil- 

 Service Estimates of the coming financial year an extra sum 

 of ^300 is among the votes (p. 374) for " packing and trans- 

 mitting from Simla to England a part of Mr. Hume^s col- 

 lection of Indian Birds presented by him to the Trustees."" 



Ridgway Ornithological Club, Chicago. — At a meeting held 

 on the 8th of January last the papers read were : — " Notes on 

 the Humming-Birds of California/^ by Mr. B. T. Gault^ and 

 " Notes on some Australian Birds/^ by Prof. R. Ridgway. At 

 the meeting held on March 5tli, Mr. Jos. L. Hancock read 

 a paper on the Birds of Corpus Christi, Texas^ in which the 

 occurrences of 94 species observed there in the months of 

 March and April, 1884, were recorded. 



News from the Caucasus. — Dr. Radde was intending to 

 leave Tiflis in February last on a scientific expedition into the 

 new Trans-Caspian provinces of Russia, and was expecting 

 also to have an opportunity of exploring the adjoining moun- 

 tains of Northern Chorassan. Dr. Radde informs us of the 

 occurrence of Halcyon sniyrnensis at Talysch, on the S.W. 

 shore of the Caspian, in June last. This species is new to 

 the Russian avifauna. 



Black Redstart in Somersetshire. — On Jan. 14th, walking 

 along the shore from Weston-super-Mare, near the mouth of 

 the Axe, I saw five Black Redstarts {Ruticilla tithys). The 

 first four were immature birds, the last was an apparently 

 adult male in full plumage. They were picking about on 

 the heaps of dead seaweed and other refuse thrown up by 

 the tide, and flitted from heap to heap as I approached, 

 sometimes alighting on the neighbouring stone wall. On 

 the 25th of the same month I revisited the spot, but could 

 not find them again ; nearer Weston, however, I observed a 

 single specimen, close to the further end of the new Parade. 



P. L. SCLATER. 



