Letters, Announcements, ^c. -161 



August, 1869. 



Sir, — Having been recently engaged in a study of the 

 African Swallows, the results of which I hope shortly to lay 

 before your readers, I discovered in the collection of Viscount 

 Walden a specimen of that rare species Hirundo nigrita, G. R. 

 Gray (Gen. B. pi. xx.) {Afticora nigrita, Hartl. Orn. Westafr. 

 p. 25) . This I feel sure must be regarded as the type of a new 

 genus, for which I beg leave to propose the name of Waldenia, 

 as an acknowledgment of the services rendered to ornithology 

 by Lord Walden. 



Waldenia, gen. nov. 



Rostrum robustum, elongatum, apicem versus compressum, 

 dertro decurvato, gonyde vix ascendente, setis brevibus ad basin 

 narium paucis ; naribus oblongatis marginesuperiore membrana 

 obtectis. 



Ala longse, remige primo quartum sequante, secundo longis- 

 simo, tertio quam primus longiore. 



Cauda brevis, rectricibus duodecim, externarum pogonio in- 

 terno graduatim apicem versus attenuato, externis paulo pro- 

 ductis. 



Pedes robusti, tarsis scutellatis digitis lateralibus aequilongis, 

 hallucem vix sequantibus. 



Typus, Waldenia nigrita (G. R. Gray). 



The only African genera at all niearly allied to Waldenia are 

 Atticora and Hirundo ; but Atticora has round nostrils, and no 

 overhanging membrane ; Hirundo has this membrane, but then 

 the first primary is the longest, whereas in Waldenia the second 

 is. This fact, in connexion with the large robust feet, seems to 

 show that the habits of the latter are more arboreal than aerial. 



I am, &c., R. B. Sharpe. 



Jardine Hall, 11 September, 1869. 



Sir, — I have just been reading Mr. Harting's interesting paper 

 on Anarhynchus frontalis in the last number of 'The Ibis' 

 (pp. 304-310). 



Some time since, I received from new Zealand two specimens 

 of this bird, in both of which the bill is turned to the right, 

 similarly to that figured in the woodcut. My own opinion is. 



