Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 311 



consent of naturalists in congress assembled, would be a work 

 worthy of the century. Let ornithologists be the first in the 

 field, and the other -ologists will soon follow." 



" The Cockatoos puzzle me greatly. You make my Lombock 

 sp. C. cequatorialis, which Temminck says is peculiar to N. Gilolo 

 and N. Celebes. Do you make it a synonym of C. sulphurea, 

 which you do not mention?* You will see small specimens of a 

 Cockatoo from Mysol, which I thought were C. cequatorialis. I 

 have just received a very small specimen from Gilolo, bearing the 

 same relation to C. cristata that C. sulphurea does to C. triton. 

 It will be, I suppose, quite new.^' 



" The larger and smaller specimens of Megapodius from Mysol 

 are also curious. In colour they are exactly alike ; but the size 

 of the bill and feet is so different that they must be distinct. 

 Between the Ti-ichoglossus of Amboyna and Ceram and that of the 

 Papuan Islands I can discover no difference, and I suspect that T. 

 nigrigularis of G. R. Gray must be suppressed. You have left 

 out Lorius domicella altogether from your list, giving L. tricolor 

 to Amboyna in its place, which latter is wholly Papuan. Eos 

 cyanostriata is a native of Timor-laut ; and of Eos reticulata and 

 squamata I saw nothing in Amboyna and Cerara, and believe 

 they do not exist there. Aprosmictus amboinensis is a species 

 strictly confined to Ceram, which you have not given. It is 

 quite distinct from the A. dorsalis of New Guinea. The Psitta- 

 cidce of the Solomon Islands seem so exactly representative of 

 those of New Guinea and the Moluccas, as to show that they 

 must be included in the Papuan subregion, and (if true Lories 

 are not found in New Caledonia) will mark its eastern limits. 

 New Ireland and the eastern parts of New Guinea no doubt 

 still contain many fine things in this group." 



The last letters received by Mr. S. Stevens from Mr. Wallace 

 are dated Delli in Timor, February 6th, 1861, and state that he 

 had been there a month, and intended waiting two moi-e. The 

 country was barren, and, Australia-like, poor in insects ; but 

 birds were tolerably abundant, though not of very fine species. 



* No. C. sulphurea is certainly separable, and it is probable that the 

 Lombock bird belongs to this form ; the Timor species being, according to 

 Temminck, the true C. sulphurea. — P. L. S. 



