Letters, Announcements, ^~c. 231 



coverts were black, not mottled brown, as they should be in 

 S. catarrhactes ! Could it be that the Antarctic Skua 

 brought home alive by our worthy brother of the B, O. U., 

 Capt. W. V. Legge, and which escaped from the Zoological 

 Gardens, has been mixing matters in the northern hemi- 

 sphere ? and just as I flattered myself the Skuas were so nicely 

 disposed of too ! The thought was horrible. 



On the other hand I have discovered another example of 

 Syrrhaptes paradoxus, killed along the line of the Pyrenees, 

 in addition to the two which I have already recorded as ob- 

 tained near Bayonne in the western and Perpignan in the 

 eastern portion of the chain. On a recent visit to Oloron an 

 inspection of the collection formed by Philippe of Bagneres- 

 de-Bigorre showed that the bird which that naturalist had 

 recorded in his ' Ornithologie Pyreneenne ' (p. 100) under the 

 name of " Ganga unibande, Pterocles arenarius,^' is really a 

 male of Pallas^s Sand-Grouse. In the above work (his rough 

 journal, printed after his death, and very difficult to obtain) 

 he describes the specimen accurately, and says, " Pai tue cet 

 oiseau sur la frontiere espagnole, le 27 mai, 1863. Je ne 

 I'ai plus revu.^^ M. Adrien Lacroix, author of the ' Oiseaux 

 des Pyrenees,' seems to have been unaware of the existence 

 of these three specimens. 



Lastly, I have been discovered and most cordially welcomed 

 by the celebrated French ornithologist M. Olph-Galliard, 

 formei'ly of Lyons, but now resident in the little frontier 

 town of Hendaye. His museum, library, and store of expe- 

 rience have been freely placed at my disposal ; but it is to be 

 hoped that he will himself give us the benefit of his practical 

 knowledge of the avifauna of these parts in the pages of this 

 Journal, to which he has already been an esteemed, although 

 too unfrequent, contributor. 



Yours &c,, 



Howard Saunders. 



New Ornithological Publications in Progress. — Mr. E. W. 

 Oates's 'Handbook of the Birds of British Burmah' will be 



