132 Letters, Extracts, Notices, tyc. 



mals of the Straits Settlements and adjacent protected States, 

 for which end he is busy collecting notes and specimens. 



Ornithological Works in Progress. — We understand that 

 Messrs. Sotheran & Co. intend to carry out the scheme of 

 producing a monograph of the Birds of Paradise, which was 

 always a pet idea of the late John Gould. The letterpress 

 will be written by Mr. Bowdler Sharpe, who will utilize 

 many of the plates of Gould's ( Birds of New Guinea/ but 

 the work will also contain illustrations of all the new species 

 described since Mr. Gould's death. The plates are,' we 

 understand, nearly all drawn, and the work will appear 

 early in the present year. 



Mr. F. Clifton, of Lynmouth Cottage, Hoyard Road, 

 Dorking, has been engaged for several years in collecting 

 materials for a work on the fauna of Surrey, and asks the 

 kind assistance of such of the members of the B. O. U. and 

 other ornithologists connected with the county as may be 

 able to give him information on some of the rarer species. 



Mr. Miller Christy, F.L.S. (of Chignal St. James, Chelms- 

 ford), announces his intention of publishing a volume on the 

 birds of Essex, provided a sufficient number of subscribers 

 can be obtained. The work will extend to about 250 pages, 

 with a map and numerous illustrations, and will at the 

 same time form one of the special memoirs of the Essex 

 Field Club. 



Mr. James Backhouse, Jr., F.Z.S., has in preparation a 

 ' Handbook of European Birds/ to be published, in an 8vo 

 form, during the ensuing spring by Messrs. Gurney and 

 Jackson, at a subscription price of 7s. 6d. 



The proposed work is intended to treat of European birds 

 only, but, it being by no means easy in some cases to decide 

 which species deserve to be thus described, two Appendices 

 will be added : one comprising a list of strictly Asiatic or 

 African birds which have only casually occurred within Euro- 

 pean limits ; the other a list of the Nearctic (North American) 

 species of which records are extant as having been met with 

 in Europe. 



