350 Lt'tlers, Extracts, Nofic/'ft, &;c. 



Nesting of the Victoria Rifle-bird.— From tlie ' Victorian 

 Naturalist' of January 1892 we learn that a nest of the 

 Victoria Eifle-hird {Ptilorhis victorice) was found on 

 November 19th, 1891, by Mr. Dudley Le Souef and Mr. H. 

 Barnard during a visit to North Barnard Island, about forty 

 miles off the coast from Cardwell, Queensland. The hen 

 bird was watched for some time, and seen to tly into the 

 crown of a Pandanus-tree growing close to the open beach. 

 The nest was about 10 feet from the ground, and the bird 

 sat quietly, although the explorers were camped only about 

 5 feet away from the tree. There was a single egg in it, 

 partly incubated. The nest was somewhat loosely con- 

 structed of broad dead leaves and green branchlets of climb- 

 ing plants and fibrous material. Inside were two large 

 concave-shaped dead leaves underneath pieces of dry tendrils, 

 which formed a springy lining. The egg is described as 

 having the ground-colour of a fleshy tint, streaked longitu- 

 dinally with reddish brown and purplish brown, and mea- 

 suring 314 by 2*32 cm. 



New Mjzomela, fi'om New Ireland. — In our notice of the 

 third part of Count Salvadori's ' Aggiunte alia Ornitologia 

 della Papuasia e delle Molucche' (above, p. 176), we omitted 

 to state that a new species of Myzomela from New Ireland 

 is described there, from a specimen in the British Museum, 

 and named Myzomela pulchella. 



Neiv Expeditions. — Mr. 0. V. Aplin, Member of the 

 B. O. U., is making arrangements to start in August next 

 on a Collecting-Expedition to Uruguay, where he has been 

 ofiered free quarters on an Estancia near the town of Minas. 

 Mr. Aplin will endeavour to make as complete a collection 

 as possible of the birds of the district of Minas and of their 

 nests and eggs. Very little is at present known of the Orni- 

 thology of this part of Uruguay. Except the specimens 

 collected by Darwin at Maldonado during the voyage of the 

 ' Beagle,' and two small collections lately received by Mr. 

 Dalgleish, hardly any materials exist in European Collections 



