290 Letters, Extracts, Notices, S^c. 



in the ' Ornithologische Monatsberichte.' The delay in the 

 publication of the Record in the ^Archiv fiir Naturge- 

 schichte ' was one of the inducements that led me to under- 

 take the publication of the 'Ornithologische Monatsberichte.' 

 This Monatsbericht contains a review of the whole ornitho- 

 logical literature of the year^ arranged in order, and thus 

 supplies the earliest possible account of the publications of 



every year. 



I am. 



Yours &c., 



Berlin. A. E-EICHENOW. 



The Sun-birds of Ruwenzori. — In Mr. Scott Elliot's 

 'Naturalist in Mid-Africa/ two Sun-birds are mentioned as 

 met with high up on Mount Ruwenzori — Nectarinia kili- 

 mensis and N.johnstoni. In the small collection of birds (of 

 some 30 skins) presented by Mr. Scott Elliot to the British 

 Museum are two examples of Nectarinia kilimensis, which 

 v^as originally described in 1884 by Captain Shelley from 

 specimens obtained by Sir H. H. Johnston on Kilimanjaro. 

 Other examples in the National Collection were procured by 

 Mr. H. C. V. Hunter on Kilimanjaro. There are no speci- 

 mens of N. johnstoni in Mr. Scott Elliot's collection^ but 

 the species is quite likely to occur on Ruwenzori, as it 

 was found by Dr. Gregory on Mount Kenia (Sharpe, Bull. 

 B. 0. C. iii. p. ix), although originally discovered on Kilima- 

 njaro. 



Turnix sylvatica in Sicily. — Mr. J. I. S. Whitaker, of 

 Palermo, has sent us the following interesting, but saddening, 

 communication : — 



c( J regret to say that the Hemipode, once so plentiful in 

 Sicily, must now be looked upon as a rara avis here, and I 

 only hope I may be mistaken in thinking that it will, at no 

 distant date, be totally extinct in this island. 



" Professor Doderlein, writing of Turnix sylvatica in 

 1871 ('Avifauna del Modenese e della Sicilia,' p. 168), 

 reported the species as plentiful in Sicily at that time, he 



