282 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



comes a notice of the smaller Quiscali of the United States, 

 three in number — one, Q. aneus, being described as new. The 

 whole paper shows a very great amount of care in its execution. 



XX. — Letters, Announcements, ^c. 

 The following letters, addressed " To the Editor of ' The Ibis,' " 



have been received : — 



South African Museum, Cape Town. 

 October 9tb, 1869. 



Sir, — Permit me, in your pages, to thank Dr. Malmgren for 

 his letter (Ibis, 1869, pp. 229, 230), which has only just reached 

 me, and to point out that, of the birds to which he has called 

 the attention of your readers as occurring in South Africa, and 

 omitted from my book, Budytes flavus was hinted at (B. S. Afr. 

 p. 119) and has since been noted by me (Ibis, 1869, p. 73) as 

 found near Cape Town ; for, as I then stated, the specimen ob- 

 tained seems to be identical with examples of the European 

 species. As to Caprimulgns europczus, I had heard of it, but 

 could not satisfy myself as to the truth of the report ; now, 

 however, I can include it in any subsequent edition, as occurring 

 at Natal, on the authority mentioned by your learned corre- 

 spondent. But for the rest I must demur to receiving them as 

 " South-African " — that is to say, as found within my narrowed 

 limit, until the latitude and longitude of the places where they 

 have occurred are particularized — the first mentioned by Dr. 

 Malmgren being clearly beyond my range. Wahlberg unfortu- 

 nately invented names and limits for the countries he visited, 

 which are very different from those which we dwellers in South 

 Africa recognize. His " CafFreland '' is not our Caffreland, and 

 extends I know not whither — as far as, if not far beyond Lake 

 N'gami ! A specimen therefrom, labelled by him from " CafFre- 

 land," may really come from a place many degrees beyond my 

 limit, and I cannot include such an one in my list, [t was 

 a great pity that Wahlberg should have adopted this plan of 

 giving old names to new boundaries; for it is calculated to make 

 "confusion worse confounded." Yours, &c., 



E. L. Layaku. 



