182 Letters, Extracts, Notices, b^c. 



examination from the top or from the bottom of the system, 

 as he pleases. The Ostriches^ Kiwis^ Tinamous, Penguins, 

 and most of the Gallinse are already in their places. The 

 specimens have been specially selected for the purpose and 

 carefully remounted. • Skeletons, young birds, eggs, nests, 

 and other subsidiary objects, where required, are freely intro- 

 duced. There can be no question that when the whole series 

 is finished it will afford a most instructive and interesting 

 exhibition of the various groups of the Class of Birds. 



Penguins in the Macquarie Islands. — The ' Pall Mall Maga- 

 zine ^ for November last (vol. xiii. p. 3G3) contains a well- 

 written popular article on the Penguins of the Macquarie 

 Islands by Mr. W. H. Bickerton, entitled '' The Home of 

 the Penguins." It is beautifully illustrated " from special 

 photographs.^^ The full-page plate of the " King Penguin 

 hatching its Egg" is capital. The author visited the island 

 in March 1895, and found two species of Penguins breeding 

 there, which he calls the Royal Penguin [Eudyptes schlegeli) 

 and the King Penguin {Ajjtenodytes longirostris) , the former 

 being by far the more numerous. Full details are given 

 about the breeding-habits of both of them. 



The Birds of the Sandwich Islands. — We recorded the 

 return of Mr. R. L. Perkins from the Sandwich Islands last 

 year (see Ibis, 1897, p. 491). His last collection of birds 

 has now been arranged and divided by the Sandwich Island 

 Committee, the first set of 81 specimens having been depo- 

 sited in the British Museum. Among them are examples of 

 Drepanis funerea, Loxops aurea, and Viridonia sagittirostris, 

 the last two being new to the collection. We may now 

 venture to hope that the completion of Messrs. Wilson and 

 Evanses ' Aves Hawaiienses ' and of Mr. Rothschild's ' Avi- 

 fauna of Laysan ' will not be much longer deferred. 



New Ornithologist at Leyden. — We have the pleasure of 

 announcing that Dr. Otto Finsch, of Delmenhorst, Bremen, 

 C.M.Z.S., has been appointed to succeed Dr. Biittikofer in 

 the charge of the Department of Birds in the Leyden Museum. 



