G08 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



These notes properly appertain to Agelams thilius (Mol.) a 

 species I liad not included in my paper of that date ; and it 

 is only since the publication of the same that I have dis- 

 covered the error into which I have fallen. 



I am, &e., 



Ernest Gibson. 



Mr. A. O. Hume, the Editor of ' Stray Feathers/ writing 

 (May 19th last) "on the extreme eastern summits of Mu- 

 nipur, overlooking the unexplored valley of Kubo, and with 

 a distant view of the broad stream of the unknown Ning-tee 

 river " before him, says : — 



" I have just had such a misfortune. I discovered here a 

 lovely Pheasant ; I succeeded in getting only two males : of 

 one I made a superb skin ; the other I had alive ; the poor 

 thing had got so tame, and would take rice (boiled) and in- 

 sects out of my hand. The other night, after almost the first 

 dry hot day we have had, my people, in the middle of the night, 

 managed to set my mat hut on fire. It went up like an ex- 

 plosion of gunpowder ; and amongst other things the poor 

 dear Pheasant that I had reserved expressly for you was 

 burnt to death. The feathers were terribly burnt ; but I 

 have made a skin of it ; and this I will send home to you 

 to give you some idea of what it is like, if, as I believe, it 

 proves to be new. Here I have not even ' Jerdon ' or 

 ' Stray Feathers ;' but I know all the Pheasants, I think ; 

 and I believe this is new. The good skin I had luckily sent 

 away before this fire ; so that it is all safe. It is such a 

 lovely bird, according to my remembrance closest to Gallo- 

 phasis ellioti, but with the back and rump barred black and 

 white, like, or somewhat like, a Gallophasis ." 



Obituary. — We are grieved to announce the death of Count 

 Ercole TuratIj which took place in Milan on the 30th of 

 July, after a long and painful illness, at the age of only 

 52 years, he having being born on the 10th of July, 1829, 

 at Burto Arsizio. 



