Letters, Extracts, Notices, §c. Ill 



party will land in North Brazil, and proceed into the 

 interior, to study the little-known fauna of Piauhy and 

 Maranhao. 



Travels of Capt. Boyd Alexander . — Capt. Alexander returned 

 home from the Gold Coast in September last with a collection 

 of some 250 birds, among which, however, were very few 

 that he had not previously met with in that Colony. On 

 the 25th of the same month he left again for West Africa, 

 having obtained two months' leave, and on Oct. 2Gth was 

 at Old Calabar, which he describes as " a splendid place, very 

 prosperous, and quite different from the Gold Coast/' In a 

 few days he was expecting to leave for Fernando Po, and 

 would thence go on to San Thome, to make an ornithological 

 reconnaissance of these islands. 



The Position of the American Vultures. — The much-vexed 

 question of the correct position of the American Vultures 

 (Cathartidse) in the ' Systema Avium' is discussed by Mr. 

 Py craft in his recently-issued paper on the " Osteology of 

 the Falconiformcs " (P. Z. S. 1902, vol. i. p. 277). " So 

 markedly do these birds differ from all other Accipitrine 

 forms that such good authorities as Garrod and Forbes 

 wished to place them in a separate Order. Garrod proposed 

 to associate them with the Ciconiae and Steganopodes, and 

 Forbes to arrange them with the Ciconite and Tubinares. 

 Mr. Pycraft agrees with Mr. Beddard that osteologically the 

 Falconiformcs are rather Gruine than Ciconiinc. They have 

 a " desmognathous palate of a quite peculiar type," which 

 however, is shown by the author to be nearly approached 

 by Psophia. He concludes that the Cathartidje are the 

 least specialized members of the Accipitrine group, shewing 

 their low generalized position by other parts of the skeleton 

 as well as by the skull. We may safely regard them, he 

 thinks, as the most primitive of the Falconiformcs. 



