130 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



Island, in the North Pacific, last spring, has already sent home 

 a large series of birds, some of which are of great interest. 



Mr. H, O. Forbes, who has been for some time making 

 collections in the East-Indian Islands, has just returned to 

 Amboina from a short trip to Timor-laut, which has been 

 carried out principally by means of funds voted in aid of this 

 particular expedition by the British Association. Mr, Forbes's 

 chief collections on this occasion consist of plants and birds. 

 Of the former, according to the decision of the Timor-laut 

 Committee of the British Association, the first set is to be 

 deposited in the Kew Herbarium, of the latter the first set 

 will go to the British ]\luseum. But steps will be taken, we 

 believe, to ensure the immediate publication of Mr. Forbes^s 

 discoveries, which, in the case of the birds at least, are likely 

 to be of special interest, the avifauna of Timor-laut being 

 quite unknown. 



New Wo7'ks in Preparation. — We are glad to be able to 

 announce that Canon Tristram's long projected Synopsis of 

 the Fauna and Flora of Palestine will at length appear as a 

 volume of the Reports of the Association for the Exploration of 

 the Holy Land. It will include, of course, a memoir on the 

 birds, to which our excellent fellow-worker has devoted, as 

 we all know, special attention. 



We are also much pleased to hear that Mr. W. H. Blan- 

 ford is likely to be shortly employed on the editorship of a 

 series of handbooks on the zoology of India. This must, of 

 course, include a new work on the birds, Jerdon's volumes, 

 excellent at their time, being now quite out of date. 



Two volumes of the British Museum Catalogue of Birds 

 are, we have good reason to believe, in a forward state, and 

 likely to appear in the course of a few months. In one of 

 these Mr. Sharpe will continue and, we believe, complete 

 his account of the great and varied group of Timeliidae. 

 Another volume, prepared by Dr. Gadow, will contain the 

 Laniidse, Vireonidse, Paridse, Nectariniidse, and Meliphagidse. 

 After this the progress of the Catalogue will perhaps be 

 somewhat delayed by the transfer of the zoological collections 



