286 Letters, Extracts, Notices, S^c. 



Costa Rica and the Galapagos. It was visited by H.M.S. 

 ' Sulphur ' in 1840^ when a single example of a peculiar Cuckoo 

 {Coccyzus ferrugineus) was obtained. The island is volcanic, 

 rising to 1700 feet in elevation, and covered with the densest 

 forest. The naturalists of the U.S. Fish-Commission S.S. 

 ' Albatross,' in 1891, procured examples of six species of 

 birds on it, which are here described. Cocornis agassizi is a 

 new genus and species allied to Cactornis of the Galapagos; 

 and Nesotriccus r'ldgwayi is a new form of Tyrannidse, allied 

 to Eribates magnirostris of the same islands. Dendrceca 

 aureola is not distinguishable from examples of the same 

 species from the Galapagos. Two specimens of Coccyzus 

 ferrugineus were procured. 



On Malpelo Island, an inaccessible volcanic islet in lat. 

 3° 59' 7" N. and long. 81° 34' 27" W., four specimens of the 

 rare Gull Creagrus furcatus [Xema furcata^ were shot during 

 the short stay of the expedition on March 3rd, and others 

 were seen on the rocks. 



Examples of five species of Petrels were obtained at sea, 

 among which were specimens of the rare Halocyptena 

 microsoma. 



XXV. — Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 

 We have received the following letters, addressed " to the 

 Editors " :— 



Sirs, — I think it only right to mention that a perfectly 

 clear understanding existed between those few ornithologists 

 who advocated and those who undertook the English trans- 

 lation of Herr Gatke^s volume ; the understanding being 

 that it was, as far as possible, '' to be Gatke and nothing but 

 Gatke.^' 



I am, 



Yours &c., 



J. A. Harvie-Brown. 



Dunipace, Larbert, Stirlingshire, N.B., 

 Jan. 12tli, 1896. 



