120 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Announcements, ^c. 



and sent up to this Society by Dr. Hueston, as well as a male 

 and female Spoonbill, the head and feet of which are now laid 

 upon the table." 



" Ocean birds in great abundance surround the shore. For- 

 merly, their head-quarters were at Mount Pitt ; but since Nor- 

 folk Island has been inhabited they have removed to the smaller 

 isles, Nepean swarms with Gannets and Mutton Birds, while 

 Boatswain or Tropic-birds, and Sea-Swallows, inhabit the rocks 

 to the north." 



The typical and only known specimen, in European collec- 

 tions of the Vulturine Guinea-fowl {Numida vulturina, Hard- 

 wicke; Gould, Icon. Av., pi. 8) has lately been purchased from 

 the United Service Institution by the Trustees of the British 

 Museum. With reference to the true locality of this bird (com- 

 monly said to be West Africa), we are informed by Mr. E. 

 Layard that he obtained living examples of it at Bojana-bay, on 

 the north-west side of Madagascar, where it is the domesticated 

 species. Hartlaub however, we may remark, gives Numida cris- 

 tata as the only known species in Madagascar*. The latter, 

 Mr. Layard informs us, he obtained alive at Zanzibar, 'where it 

 is the species.' 



We have the pleasure of announcing that Mr. Edgar N. 

 Layard, now resident in Cape Town as Curator of the South- 

 African Museum, is preparing for communication to this Journal 

 a series of articles upon the Birds of Africa south of the Tropic 

 of Capricorn. Mr. Layard hopes to be able to give a short 

 diagnosis of each species, with full details as to localities, range, 

 nidification, &c. We propose to keep the different articles in 

 type, and, on the completion of the series, to issue the whole 

 (together with corrections and additions) in one volume, which 

 may in this shape, we hope, form a useful Synopsis of South- 

 African Ornithology. Those who desire to obtain copies of the 

 Synopsis, or to assist Mr. Layard in his undertaking, are re- 

 quested kindly to communicate with him (at the Museum, Cape 

 Town), or with the Editor of 'The Ibis.' 



* Syst. Orn. W. Afr., p. 200, and " Syst. Ueb. Vog. Madagasc." in Cab. 

 Jouru. 1860, p. 163. 



