260 Letters, Announcements, 6fC. 



Limborg had hitherto done very well. His " first consign- 

 ment_, of some 200 birdskins^ a few small mammals, reptiles, 

 and fisheSj and a lot of good insects, arrived a feM' days since, 

 showing that he mnst have worked hard. We are going to 

 send him another and better taxidermist. The duplicates 

 will be sold to help expenses ; and those who apply first will 

 have the first choice.'" 



Pitta versus Brachyurus. — Mr. Elliot, in his well-known 

 monograph, uses the generic term Brachyurus for the great 

 body of Pittas, i. e. those with short tails, and confines Pitta 

 to the sharp-tailed section, containing P. cyanura and others. 

 But there is no doubt this practice is indefensible. Pitta, 

 as originally established in 1816 by Vieillot (Analyse, p. 42), 

 is defined as =" Breve" of Buff'on. Now Buffon^s "Breve" 

 contained only four species, all belonging to the short-tailed 

 division. 



Again, the type of Brachyurus, founded by Thunberg in 

 1821 (K. Yet. Ak. Handl. 1821, p. 370), is Turdus triostegus 

 of the Museum Carlsonianum, which = Pitta bengalensis 

 of the short-tailed section. Therefore Brachyurus = Pitta, 

 and these names cannot be used for different genera. 



Name of Falco dickinsoni. — In the first volume of his Cata- 

 logue of Birds (p. 447) Mr. Sharpe has altered the specific 

 name of the Falcon described and figured in ' The Ibis ' for 

 1864, and called dickinsoni (after its discoverer, the late Dr. 

 John Dickinson, of the Oxford and Cambridge Central- African 

 Mission), to '' dicker soni." This he appears to have done in 

 consequence of what Mr. Gurney has stated. Ibis, 1869, p. 444. 

 But I believe. Mr. Gurney must have been mistaken. With 

 the late Dr. Dickinson himself I never had the good fortune 

 to be acquainted, but on referring to the correspondence Avhich 

 I had with his brother, Mr. R. Dickinson, of Jarrow-upon- 

 Tyue, I find that my version of the family name is undoubt- 

 edly correct. I must add that Mr. Sharpe ought, in my 

 opinion, to have stated in his ' Catalogue ' the grounds upon 

 which the change was made, as it might otherwise have been 

 supposed to be a typographical error. — P. L. S. 



