Letters, Announcements, &^c. 179 



Mr. Ramsay, of Sydney, Otid'qjhaps nohiUs, var, cerv'icalis, in 

 a paper read before the Linnean Society of New Soutli Wales 

 on December 31st, 1879, which name is subsequently, in the 

 same paper, altered to O. cervicalis. Mr. Ramsay has not 

 yet favoured us with a copy of this paper, nor has the fourth 

 part of the journal in question for 1879 (which would, we 

 suppose, contain Mr. Ramsay^s article), so far as we know, 

 been anywhere received in this country. It is therefore not 

 possible for us to give the exact date of its publication. 



Note on Chlorophonia cyanodorsalis. — Graf v. Berlepsch 

 sends us the following extract from a letter from M. Alph. 

 Dubois, of the Royal Museum of Brussels, in reply to his 

 inquiries concerning that problematical species Chlorophonia 

 cyanodorsalis, Dubois, Rev. de Zool. 1859, p. 49, t. 2 : — 



" Pour ce qui regarde le Chloroph. cyanodorsalis, je ne puis 

 vous donner aucun renseignement. Ce n^est pas moi, mais 

 feu moi pere qui a decrit et figure cet oiseau. Je ne sais ce 

 que son type est devenu; car peu de temps avant sa mort il 

 a vendu sa collection a un amateur etranger que je ne con- 

 aais pas. Je suis egalement d^avis que cet oiseau n^est 

 qu'une variete accidentelle de Voccijjitalis." ; 



The Birds of Socotra. — The birds' skins obtained in Socotra 

 by Prof. Balfour in February last year have been determined 

 by Sclater and Dr. Hartlaub. Their report on the subject will 

 be read before the Zoological Society on the 18th inst. Ex- 

 amples of thirty-four species are in the collection, of which 

 seven appear to be new. The remainder are mostly well- 

 known East-African forms. 



Works in preparation. — Mr. Dresser, having completed his 

 ' Birds of Europe,' has in contemplation a companion work 

 on the birds of the eastern half of the Palsearctic Region, and 

 a monograph of the Meropidse. For the latter many of the 

 plates, by Mr. Keulemans, are, we understand, already 

 drawn. The next three volumes of the British-Museum 

 Catalogues of Birds to be issued are the Turdidge and 

 Sylviidse, by Mr. Seebohm ; the Timeliidse, by Mr, Sharpe ; 



