330 Letters, Announcements, &^c. 



has been a great want of incubators for the surplus eggs — two 

 very good ones have been invented in the colony." 



5th. I have to offer a few observations on the occurrence of 

 Somateria stelleri in the North Pacific Ocean. 



In the article on this scarce Duck contained in Part 3 of Messrs. 

 Sharpe and Dresser's admirable work on the Birds of Europe, 

 reference is made to a female of this species purchased by me 

 several years since from a person who sailed as ship's steward 

 in the Arctic Expedition commanded by Captain Collinson. 



I regret that owing to my absence from Norfolk, and to the 

 mislaying of a contemporary memorandum which I have since 

 found, the information which I furnished to Messrs. Sharpe and 

 Dresser was not so complete as it should have been ; and I am 

 therefore now desirous of supplementing it by such further par- 

 ticulars as I am at present in a position to supply. 



The number of specimens of Somateria stelleri which I pur- 

 chased from Captain CoUinson's steward was not one, but two, 

 both of which were obtained in July 1854, on Flaxman's Island, 

 lat. 70'' 11' N., and long. 145° 50' W. 



These specimens appear to be an adult male and female, ex- 

 actly agreeing with European examples in full dress, except that 

 in the male bird the green band on the occiput appears rather 

 narrower, the inner scapulars and the adjoining feathers of the 

 back rather more tinged with brownish, and the buff feathers 

 on the upper part of the breast adjoining the throat somewhat 

 paler and more tinged with greenish brown at the tips than is 

 the case in a full-plumaged European male with which I have 

 compared the American specimen. 



I am, Sir, &c., 



Marldon, Totnes, June 1, 1872. J. H. GuRNEY. 



Sir, — Captain Hayes Lloyd, in an interesting letter {antea, 

 p. 197) has stated his conviction to be that Cyurnis tickellice, 

 Elyth, is the female of Cyornis jerdoni, G. R. Gray (olim C. 

 banyumas, Horsf., apud Jerd.). Captain Lloyd's observations 

 were made in a part of India ornithologically little known ; and 

 it is therefore not impossible that the Cyornis he refers to is 

 distinct from either of the species he has associated it with. But 



