Letters, Extracts, Notices, &^'c. 571 



iclei)tical with that seen in the Flamingo. ' The varied 

 affinities of this large Carinate bird appear to lie midway 

 between the Ducks and Geese on the one side, and the 

 Herons and Flamingos on the other. It may be placed in a 

 new family ; but its characters are in all respects such as 

 might have occurred in an existing bird. There is no 

 indication of affinity to Archceopteryx, or that the bird 

 diverged in any way from modern types.' '"' 



Lecture on Albatrosses. — At the Museum, Brassey Institute, 

 on April lOtli, Mr. Thomas Parkin, M.A., M.B.O.U., gave a 

 lecture to the members of the Hastings and St. Leonard's 

 Natural History Society on the Albatrosses. A special 

 feature of the lecture was the exhibition of no fewer than 

 fourteen out of the seventeen forms that are admitted to 

 specific rank by ornithologists. This splendid exhibition was 

 rendered possible by the kindness of the Hon. Walter Roth- 

 schild, M.P., of Tring, Herts, and also by the kind services 

 of Dr. Ernst Hartert, the accomplished Director of the 

 Museum there. Mr. Parkin further produced examples of 

 the eggs of several of the species, some from his own cabinets, 

 and others from the choice collections of ^Nlr. Rothschild. 



New Work on the Eggs of Australian Birds, — The ' Cata- 

 logue of Nests and Eggs of the Birds of Australia,' by 

 jNIr. Alfred J. North, Ornithologist to the Australian Museum, 

 which was published by the Trustees of the Australian 

 Museum in 1889 as No. xii. of their series of Catalogues, is 

 now out of print, and the Trustees have decided to issue a 

 new work in an enlarged form by the same author. There 

 will be representations of about 600 eggs on 30 full-sized 

 plates, and arrangements are being made to have them hand- 

 coloured for those who desire it. Some of the nests and 

 breeding-haunts of the birds will also be shown on full- 

 sized plates, but the greater number will be interspersed 

 among the text, where also many the birds themselves 

 will be figured. The photogiaphs, from which the plates 

 representing the nests are made, have mostly been taken by 



