212 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^-c. 



" I have been so busy with my mass of specimens (all wanting 

 sorting and cleaning), and with my numerous letters and books (a 

 whole year), that my mind has been too much unsettled to write. 

 Next mail I shall write to all my entomological and ornithological 

 friends who have been kind enough to send me communications. 



" I do not like the figure of Semioptera wallacii copied in ' The 

 Ibis ' from Gould's : the neck-shields are not shown to advan- 

 tage ; and the white plumes should be raised much higher or laid 

 down lower — they are neither one thmg nor the other. 



" C. Allen starts in a week or two for N. Guinea — to the true 

 locality for the rarer Birds of Paradise, and I trust he may be 

 successful. The last voyage, with all its dangers and disappoint- 

 ments, has nearly sickened me, and I think in one year I shall 

 return. 



''I seem to have all your letters but one (April 16, I860)." 



The following extracts are from letters recently received by 



us from Mr. Edward Blyth : — 



" Calcutta, January 4tli. 



"I have just received 'The Ibis,' vol. ii. No. 8, and need I 

 say that I am delighted with it ? My compliments especially 

 to the Hon. T. L. Powys and to Mr. W. H. Simpson. I have 

 also something like a compliment to send you on the part of 

 my little Shdma {Kittacincla macroura), whose cage hangs about 

 eight paces fi'om where I am now writing, and thoroughly enjoy- 

 ing existence at the delicious temperature of 70° Fahrenheit. 

 Turning to p. 410, opposite to which is a figure of Circaetus 

 zonurus, and holding it up to look at it, little Shdma imme- 

 diately became in a violent condition of excitement. No doubt 

 at all about it, as I have proved a second and a third time. 

 There is something about that spirited figure of Circaetus zo- 

 nurus which Shdma less approves of than I do. We have all 

 heard of the old Greek painter who deceived the birds. Here 

 is a modern instance ; and, I cannot help thinking, a sufficiently 

 remarkable one. Alexander von Humboldt, in his ' Personal 

 Narrative,' if I remember rightly, relates that a small South- 

 American monkey at once recognized the insects it had been 

 accustomed to prey upon, though represented only in outline 



