404 Letters, Extracts, Notices, h^c. 



been used in the preparation of the new edition of the 

 ' Birds of New Zealand/ as also the collection made by Mr, 

 Whitehead during his recent expedition to Borneo and the 

 Eastern Archipelago. It would have been more advantageous 

 to science that both these collections should have gone to 

 the British Museum of Natural History ; but we have at any 

 rate the satisfaction of knowing that they are not to leave 

 the country, as was at one time thought very probable. 



The Sitting Cuckoo. — In reference to Herr A. Miiller's 

 article on the supposed instance of the Cuckoo sitting on its 

 own eggs, of which we have given a translation above (p. 219), 

 it is right to call attention to Herr Ad. Walter's remarks 

 on this subject in the last number of the ' Journal fiir 

 Ornithologie ' (1889, p. 33), although we do not see that 

 Herr Walter has in any way disproved Herr Miiller's positive 

 statements. At the same time the verdict of the German 

 Ornithologists' Society, who discussed the subject at their 

 meeting in September last {cf. op. cit. p. 73), seems to 

 have been given against Herr Miiller and his observations. 



The B. M. Catalogue of Birds. — Mr. Sharpe is making 

 good progress with the 13th volume of the great Catalogue 

 of Birds, which will contain the remaining families of the 

 Oscines and thePseudoscines. The 15th volume, containing 

 the Tracheophonse, which has been undertaken by the same 

 author as that of the 14tli, already published (see Ibis, 1888, 

 p. 48S), is about half finished, and is expected to be ready 

 for press by the end of the year. This will conclude the 

 great array of Passeres, which will thus occupy 13 volumes. 



For the Picarise we believe the following arrangements 

 have been made: — Mr. Salvin, as already announced, takes 

 the Trochilidse and other Macrochires, Mr. Hargitt the 

 Picidse, Mr. Sharpe the Anisodactylse and Heterodactylse, 

 and Capt. Shelley the Zygodactylse. The Picarise, if we are 

 correctly informed, will require five volumes (vol. xvi. to xx.). 



