Letters, Extracts, Notices, S^c. 429 



number of bones found it is inferred that at that period the 

 Great Auk must have been a common inhabitant of the 

 North of Ireland. 



Nesting of Rupicola crocea in Guiana. — On his recent 

 excursion to the Pizara River in the interior of British 

 Guiana (see ' Tiraehri/ new ser. vol. ix. p. 231^ 1895), 

 Mr. C. A. Lloyd visited a nesting-place of the Cock-of-the 

 Rock {Rupicola crocea), which he describes as follows : — 

 " Soon after this we fell in with a young Indian and his 

 wife, the latter carrying a ' quake ' containing a beautiful 

 male Cock-of-the-Rock [Rupicola crocea) in splendid plumage, 

 which we offered to purchase, but which she refused to sell. 

 She told us, however, that we could secure the birds in 

 great numbers hard by, and that this month (March) was 

 their nesting-season. We decided on camping at a settle- 

 ment not far off to try and procure specimens, with their 

 nests and eggs. Accordingly, on reaching the village, we 

 halted for the balance of the afternoon, and, in company 

 with one of our men, started off at once in search of their 

 building-place, which we soon found, and succeeded in taking 

 a couple of nests. They each contained two speckled eggs, a 

 little larger than those of a Pigeon. The nests are placed 

 on the bare rocks, and constructed of palm-fibres stuck 

 together by a kind of gum. These were the only two nests 

 that we found with eggs, although we saw many deserted 

 ones. The birds feed on the fruit of a palm, which seems 

 to be a species of (Enocarpus, and, judging from their harsh 

 cries around us, they must have been very plentiful, but 

 we never caught sight of one. The Macoushis call the bird 

 Kavanaru." 



Waders in the Zoological Society's Fish-house. — The com- 

 partment fitted up for Waders in the Zoological Society's 

 Fish-house is now of an attractive character to the ornitho- 

 logist. There may be seen Knots, Grey Plovers, Golden 

 Plovers, Redshanks (both Common and Spotted), RufFs, and 



