Letters, Extracts, Xutlccs, ii^-c. 359 



compaiiied by Capt. Iluttoii, of tlie Cliristcliurcli ^Museum, 

 Dr. Collins, and some of his staff, and visited the Snares, 

 and the Campbell, Antipodes, Auckland, and Bounty groups. 

 At the Auckland Islands he is stated to have obtained two 

 specimens of the rare Duck Mergus australis (B. M. C. B. 

 xxvii. p. 484) , of which but few examples are known. Besides 

 the single specimen in the British Museum (obtained by 

 V. Hiigel, cf. P. Z. S. 1881, p. 1), there are in this country, 

 we believe, only one skin of this species at Cambridge, and 

 a pair in the Tring Museum. 



Capt. Boyd Aleivander at Kumasi. — Capt. Boyd Alexander, 

 whose departure for the seat of war in Ashanti we mentioned 

 lust year (see 'Il)is, 1900, p. 572), was at Kumasi at the date of 

 his last letters. He says that he has had enough fighting for 

 the present, and has reverted to the less glorious occupation 

 of bird-collecting. Capt. Alexander has already sent some 

 400 skins to the care of Mr. Ogilvie Grant, and will, no 

 doubt, bring with him an excellent set of field-notes on his 

 return home. We are informed that there are no obvious 

 novelties in the series, but that it includes examples of 

 many scarce and little-known species. 



Recent Change of Habits in Buphaga. — Mr. S. L. Hinde, of 

 the British East African Protectorate, writes in ' Nature ' 

 (Ixii. p. 3 JG) as follows : — " The following case of wild birds 

 changing their habits may be of interest. The common 

 llhinoceros-bird [Baphaga erytlirorhijnclui) here formerly fed 

 on ticks and other parasites which infest game and domestic 

 animals ; occasionally, if an animal had a sore, the birds 

 would probe the sore to such an extent that they sometimes 

 killed the animal. Since the cattle-plague destroyed the 

 immense herds in Ukambani, and nearly all the sheep and 

 goats were eaten during the late famine, the Rhinoceros- 

 birds, deprived of their habitual food, have become carni- 

 vorous, and now any domestic animal not constantly watched 

 is killed by them. Perfectly healthy animals have their ears 

 eaten down to the bone, while holes are torn in their backs 



