Letters, Announcements, ^'C. 207 



the neii'-hbourino: hills teem with birds of interest. I met the 

 other day with Microsceles amaurotis, of Japan ; and a fine Vultur 

 monachus was brought to me by a Chinese sportsman/' 



The ornithology of Western Africa seems likely at last to re- 

 ceive its proper share of attention from the votaries of that science 

 in this country. The papers by Mr. Sharpe on the birds of 

 Fantee, which we have published during the last three years, 

 are apparently only the forerunners of some more extended re- 

 searches into the ornithology of that district ; and we hope to 

 give very shortly some notes by Governor Ussher on the habits 

 of such species as have been observed by him during his long 

 residence on the Gold Coast. We are also looking forward with 

 great interest to the results of the ornithological expedition re- 

 cently undertaken by two of our Members, Captain Shelley and 

 Mr. T. E. Buckley, who started about the beginning of the year, 

 and reached Cape-Coast Castle in the first week in February. 

 Making this their head quarters, their intention was to divide the 

 three months allotted to their stay into three separate collecting- 

 trips, one month to be devoted to the country round Cape-Coast 

 and the plains of Accra, and the other two to the forest-country 

 of Denkera and the eastern districts of Fantee. The latest ac- 

 counts received from the travellers announce their safe arrival at 

 Cape Coast in good health ; and we have since heard, from another 

 source, that after a week's successful collecting round Cape-Coast 

 Castle, they had started up the river Volta on their way to the 

 mountains of Aguapim. The only naturalist who has visited 

 the Volta is Governor Ussher, who was much hindered by the 

 Ashantee war from collecting largely, but who nevertheless ob- 

 tained many rare birds {cf. ' Ibis,' 1870, p. 470). Aguapim is 

 only known ornithologically from the collections of Riis, now in 

 the Basle Museum ; so that there is no doubt that a tine field 

 lies open to our travellers. The return of Governor Ussher last 

 month to the Fantee country, and the accession to the ranks of 

 ornithologists of Mr. H. F. Blissett, of Cape Coast, who has just 

 sent home a collection to Mr. Sharpe, leave us no room for 

 doubting that the natural history of this rich and little-explored 

 country will in a short time be better known. 



