Letters, Extracts, Notices, &;c. 171 



Twenty -three specimens from Mount Peurisen and Mount 

 Poeli, in Sarawak, including the types of a new species of 

 Spider-hunter {Arachnothera everetti), collected by A. H. 

 Everettj Esq. ; purchased. 



Fourteen specimens from the Chatham Islands; purchased. 



One hundred and nine eggs from Gippsland, Australia; 

 presented by F. A. Pliilbrick, Esq., Q.C. 



Two hundred and twenty-one Birds from Australia ; pre- 

 sented by Lord Leigh. 



A supposed neio Ratite Bird. — At the Meeting of the 

 Zoological Society of London on Nov. 20tl:, Mr. R. Lydekker 

 exhibited and made remarks on a model and a photograph of 

 a bird's egg from Patagonia, supposed to be the eg^ of an 

 undescribed species of Ratite bird. Mr. Lydekker describes 

 this mysterious egg at fuller length in the last number of 

 'Knowledge' (Dec. 1st, 1894), and gives a figure of it from 

 the ''only known specimen preserved in the Museum of 

 La Plata." Dr. H. P.Moreno, the Director of that museum, 

 has supplied Mr. Lydekker with the following account of 

 it : — '' When exploring, some years ago, in the interior of 

 Patagonia, Dr. Moreno saw numbers of small flightless birds, 

 which he at first took to be young Rheas. Struck, however, 

 by seeing numerous parties of the.-e birds, as well as by the 

 absence among them of any of the ordinary Rheas which 

 might be their parents, he was soon led to discard this view. 

 On asking the Indians by \\hom he was accompanied whether 

 they knew the birds. Dr. Moreno was informed that they 

 were perfectly familiar with them, and knew them to be a 

 small kind of Rhea. Being, unfoitunately, unable to obtain 

 specimens. Dr. Moreno, on his return, asked a friend, who 

 had travelled in the same district, whether he had any know- 

 ledge of the birds. The reply was that, not oidy did l.e 

 know them well and had often seen them, but that he 

 actually had in his possession an egg which he had picked 

 up. Naturally anxious to obtain such a treasure. Dr. Moreno 

 asked if his friend would present the e^^^ to the Museum — • 

 a request which was promptly and gi'acefully granted. From 



