154 Mr. H. E. Dresser— An 



series of skins of Koslowia (Leucosticte) roborowskii and 

 Otocorys teleschoivi, both excellent species, and also three 

 specimens of Emberiza koslowi from Tibet. 



I spent an evening after leaving the Museum with 

 Mr. Alfaraki, and another with Mr. H. Goebel, and the latter 

 shewed me a collection of eggs made in the Minsinsk Dis- 

 trict, Yenesei Government, Siberia, between the head-waters 

 of the Yenesei and Irkutsk, which I eventually purchased, 

 as it contained those of several species which I wanted, 

 amongst them being clutches of Carpodacus rosens, Uragus 

 sibiricus, Motacilla leucopsis, and Emberiza aureola, with 

 the nests ; and eggs of Falco amurensis, Tardus obscurus, 

 Muscicapa luteola, Anthus richardi, Gallinago megala, Galli- 

 nago solitaria, Grus monachus, and so forth. 



I spent some time also with Dr. Bianchi in the new 

 Museum, where the arrangements are excellent. The cases, 

 about nine feet square or more, shewing birds in their 

 haunts, with all the surroundings carefully reproduced, are 

 especially fine, as are also the larger cases with groups of 

 the Urus, Wild Horse, and Wild Camel; but the gem of 

 the collection is the huge plate-glass case containing the last- 

 obtained specimen of the Mammoth, stuffed, with all the 

 surroundings carefully reproduced as they were found. The 

 skeleton is set up close by, and iu another case are the 

 stomach, intestines, &c, which have all been carefully 

 preserved. 



After calling to see some old friends in the town, I left 

 St. Petersburg on the 4th of June for Wesenberg, in 

 Esthonia, to visit Mr. Buturlin, the well-known Russian 

 ornithologist and traveller, arriving there the next morning. 

 That day and the following we spent in looking at the birds in 

 his collection, and he then proposed that we should visit some 

 .small islands in the Gulf of Finland. We accordingly 

 started early the next morning for Kunda, a little port, 

 where we arrived before noon, and called on Mr. StepanofT, 

 the chief of the Customs, who made us very welcome and 

 offered us his steam-launch. After an early dinner he and 

 two other friends joined us, and we all started for the largest 



