354 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



Mr. Witherby takes with him Mr. C. F. Camburn, an experi- 

 enced professional taxidermist, who accompanied him up the 

 White Nile in 1900, and will, no doubt, obtain excellent 

 results, although we fear that Persia, however diligently 

 it may be searched, is not capable of producing many 

 absolute novelties in bird-life. 



Mr. Alexander Whyte, after a rest in England, has 

 returned to British East Africa, via Mombasa, but will 

 be engaged principally in botanical collecting. He is, 

 however, always ready to attend to the special requirements 

 of his old correspondents. 



Mr. Scott B. Wilson started on January 16th last for 

 Tahiti, via New Zealand, with the intention of making a 

 complete exploration of the Tahiti group and possibly going 

 on to Samoa. On his passage down the Channel, however, 

 we regret to learn, Mr. Wilson had the misfortune to 

 break his leg, and was in consequence obliged to land 

 at Plymouth. On his recovery he has determined to make 

 a fresh start, but some months^ rest are still absolutely 

 necessary. 



Capt. G. E. Barrett- Hamilton, F.Z.S., is "at the front ^' 

 with the 5th Royal Irish Kifles, and is believed to be at 

 present engaged in '' guarding the lines of communication " 

 near Vredefort Road, in the Orange Colony. But he is by 

 no means neglectful of Natural History, and has lately sent 

 several small contributions to the Zoological Society. 



The last news we received from Mr. A. Blayney Perceval 

 were dated from Takunga, British East Africa, where he holds 

 a post in the Government Service. Mr. Perceval complains 

 of its being an extremely poor place for birds, but was much 

 pleased to have obtained a second specimen of Machce- 

 rhamphus anderssoni, " with a bat in its stomach " (cf. 

 P.Z. S. 1899, p. 714). 



Mr. E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, we believe, has not yet 

 returned from Tangier, where he has passed the winter. We 

 hope soon to receive an account of his excursion into the 

 Great Atlas in 1901, and further information on the new birds 

 lately characterized by him in the Bull. B. O. C. (xii. p. 27). 



