Letters, Extracts from Correspondencey Notices, S^-c. 309 



of any naturalist out of the British Islands */' finds no place in 

 *The Ibis' List of Desiderata f. 



Yours, &c., Beaven Rake. 



A letter, addressed to the Editor by Mr. J. J. Monteiro, who 

 has already done good service in Angolan J ornithology, is dated 

 from the province of Cambambe, Angola, February 6th, 1861, 

 and says, — 



*' I have only time to pen these few lines to inform you 

 that I am well, and that, despite the rainy season (now at its 

 thickest), I have already managed to preserve thirty skins of dif- 

 ferent species of birds. Nearly the whole are different from those 

 I collected and noticed before at Bembe. Amongst the skins 

 are several which I think are new, and all are very beautiful. 

 Amongst those I suppose new is a Great Kingfisher from the 

 River Quanza (Coanza of English maps). None of the descrip- 

 tions of Kingfishers in Swainson's ' Birds of Africa ' (the only 

 work I have at present with me) accord with my specimen. 

 Another good piece of news is, that ' Plantain Eaters,' and said 

 to be of several species, abound within a few miles of my present 

 locality, and so ' get-at-able ' that I have already purchased two 

 live specimens of the Corythuix erxjthrolophus, of which one is 

 in perfect health, and the other dead. As soon as the rainy 

 season is over, I will obtain more skins, and very likely some 

 new species. 



" Please send my kindest regards to Dr. Hartlaub, and tell 

 him that it would do him and you good to come and spend a 

 few months on the magnificent river Coanza — magnificent not 

 so much in size or body of water, as in vegetation, scenery, and 

 ornithology. 



" I am, unfortunately, removed from the vicinity of its finest 

 part, which is as far as Cambambe (the fort and station of), 

 though within a very few miles north of its unnavigable part. I 

 am about thirty to forty miles west of Pungo Andongo." 



* Vide Yarrell's British Birds, 2ad edit. p. 42. 



t Sabine's Snipe is considered, we believe, by the best authorities to be 

 merely a melanism of the Common Snipe. — Ed. 

 + Cf. P. Z. S. 1860, p. loy. 



