Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 221 



well with the fishes of the lake (see 'Ibis/ 1909, p. 719). 

 They had captured a young hippopotamus, and hoped to be 

 able to bring it home. They were just proceeding to form 

 a camp on an island some way out in the marshes in order 

 to explore fresh ground. The birds had been up to that 

 time rather disappointing; hardly any had heen seen that 

 had not been previously met with on the Molopo, and the 

 Mopaui forests had proved to be extraordinarily birdless. 



The party expected to be leaving Lake Ngami about the 

 middle of November, and to travel slowly down the Botletli, 

 arriving home this month*. 



The Museum Heineanum. — The celebrated collection of 

 birds at Halberstadt, which was formed in the last century 

 by the late Oberamtmann Ferdinand Heine and is known 

 as the "Museum Heineanum," has been presented by 

 Herr A intra t P. Heine (the son of the founder) to the City 

 of Halberstadt. The collection is well known from the 

 catalogue of it prepared by Cabanis and Heine, which is con- 

 stantly quoted by writers on ornithology ; it is of great 

 scientific value from the large number of typical specimens 

 which it contains. A special building, adjoining the Civic 

 Museum of Halberstadt, lias been prepared for its reception, 

 and the new "Museum Heineanum " was opened to the 

 public with much ceremony on the 23rd of September last 

 (cf. Orn. Monatsb., November 1909). 



The Food of British Birds. — At the Meeting of the British 

 Association at Dubliu in 1908 a committee was appointed, 

 on the recommendation of Sect. D, "to investigate the 

 Feeding-habits of British Birds by a study of the contents 

 of the crops and gizzards of both adults and nestlings, and 

 by the collation of observational evidence, with the object 



* Since this paragraph was written we regret to say that the expe- 

 dition has come to an end, in consequence of the ill-health of Mr. Legge, 

 who has returned to England. Mr. Woosnam proposed to remain in the 

 Cape Colony for the present. 



