406 Letters, Extracts, Notices, S^c. 



secure, and have little doubt that it will prove to be the 

 species discovered by him in Luzon. The general similarity 

 of the Nectariniidse and Dicseidae of the two islands makes 

 this supposition the more probable. 



Yours &c., 



Dean C. Worcester, 

 F. S. Bourns. 



9 Elm Street, Ann Arbor, Mich., U.S.A. 

 May 7, 1895. 



Sirs, — In his fourth paper on the 'Birds of the Philippine 

 Islands,^ we note that Mr. Ogilvie Grant remarks : " It is 

 gratifying to observe that my papers in ' The Ibis/ based on 

 the results of Mr. Whitehead's former collections, have at 

 last had the effect of inducing our American friends, Messrs. 

 F. S. Bourns and D. C. Worcester, two of the naturalists 

 who accompanied the second Steere expedition to the Philip- 

 pines, to publish the loug-expected paper descriptive of the 

 results of their collecting trip." 



This highly remarkable statement would perhaps require 

 no comment from us were it not that our final paper, which 

 was turned over to the Minnesota Academy months ago for 

 publication, seems in a fair way to be as long delayed as was 

 its predecessor, and we are not disposed to bear the responsi- 

 l)ility for the delay in either case. 



We do not know what Mr. Grant means by "the second 

 Steere expedition.'' We had the pleasure of accompanying 

 Dr. Steere on the first and ow/z/ "Steere expedition" of 

 which we have any knowledge, but that gentleman had not 

 the remotest connection with our second visit to the Philip- 

 pines. 



The causes of the unseemly delay in the publication of our 

 results Avere, briefly, the financial ruin of the gentleman who 

 sent us to the Philippines, to whom the collections secured 

 by us belonged, and the lack of means for prosecuting work 

 upon them on the part of the Minnesota Academy, into 

 whose hands they eventually came. We did not have access 

 to our collections for a year after our return. Our preli. 



