740 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. [Ibis, 



Types of Pachycephala littayei Layard. 



Sib,— In 'The Ibis' for July 1878 (Vol. ii. Fourth 

 Series, No. vii.), E. L. and E. L. C. Layard in the course 

 of their ''Notes on the Avifauna of New Caledonia," on 

 page 255 described as new Pachycephala littayei, from the 

 male, stating that the female was unknown. 



Shortly afterwards Mr. Alexander Agassiz received from 

 the Layards, from whom he was accustomed to get quantities 

 of birds, mostly by exchange, two male specimens of this 

 species, both from Lifu, Loyalty Islands, one of which, 

 No. 29749 Museum of Comparative Zoology, taken 2 Sep- 

 tember, 1878 by E. L. Layard, is marked on the back of 

 the label in Layard's handwriting — " Pachycephala littayei 

 Layard, Type.'' 



The following year (Ibis, April 1879, p. 190) Tristram 

 described the female of the species, which in the meantime 

 had been obtained by Layard, and figured (Plate vi.) male 

 and female. 



When, in 1883, Gadow prepared Vol, viii. of the 

 ' Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,' he claimed 

 as types of Pachycephala littayei Layard specimens a and b, 

 male and female, from Lifu, collected in August 1878 by 

 E. L. Layard. 



On the face of it, neither these nor our skin marked 

 " Type " by Layard are types as we understand the meaning 

 of the word to-day. All were collected after the species had 

 been described. Furthermore, the female was unknown to 

 the Layards at the time they named their bird. Obviously 

 Layard used the word " type " in a sense not uncommon in 

 his day, meaning a typical example of the species from the 

 original source, and identified as such by its deseriber. 

 Lawrence and other contemporary ornithologists frequently 

 so marked specimens they sent in exchange. 



The real type of Pachycephala littayei was probably 



