172 Letters, Extracts, Notices, &^c. 



i\ntipoclean brethren ou this uew departure in the way of 

 protective legislation. 



Prof. Davenport's Caution to Splitters ! — '' There is only 

 one class of zoologists that 1 would wish to blot out, and 

 that is the class whose reckless naming of new 'species^ 

 and ' varieties ' serves only to extend our work and the 

 tables of the conscientious synonym-hunter. Other than 

 such all classes will contribute to the advancement of Science. 

 No doubt there are unlabeled species, and no doubt they 

 must, as things are, be named. And no duubt genera and. 

 families must be revised and some groups split up and others 

 lumped. So welcome to the old-fashioned systematist, 

 though his day be short, and may he treat established genera 

 gently ! " — Prof. C. P. Davenport, in his Address to the 

 Section of Zoology of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, at Denver, Col., U.S.A., 1901. 



Further Abyssinian Exploration. — We have the pleasure 

 of announcing that the well-known collector, Mr. Edward 

 Degen, is going out to Abyssinia to join Col. Harrington at 

 Adis Abeba, and that all his collections are to be sent to 

 the British Museum. Mr. Degen will commence to collect 

 zoological specimens to the north of Adis Abeba, and 

 gradually work northwards to Lake Tana. 



The lrruj)tion of the Nutcracker in the Autmnn of 1900. — 

 An extract from the ' Schwalbe,'' kindly sent to us by Victor 

 Hitter von Tschusi zu Schmidhoffen, gives further particulars 

 of the invasion of the Slender-billed or Siberian form of the 

 Nutcracker {Nucifraga caryocatactes) into North-eastern 

 Europe in the autumn of 1900, which, although not to be 

 compared with the great invasion of 1844, was spread over a 

 large area. Particulars are given of many occurrences in 

 Bohemia and Moravia, and of a few in Silesia, Upper and 

 Lower Austria, Hungary, and Croatia. We know also that 

 some of the flock reached Holland (see BuU.B. O.C. xi. p. 48), 

 and one at least appears to have strayed as far as England, 



