136 Mr. J. H. Gurney^s Notes on 



countries. It is, however, to be hoped that the ornithology of 

 Damara Land may receive the ample illustration which it merits 

 from the pen of Mr. C. J. Andersson, who has so thoroughly 

 investigated it, and whose intention of publishing an important 

 work on the avifauna of that and of the adjacent districts has 

 already been announced*. 



I doubt not that every reader of Mr. Layard's pages will join 

 with me in the wish that so valuable a work as ' The Birds of 

 South Africa ' may speedily reach a second edition ; and it will 

 afford me much gratification should the following observations 

 prove of any service in suggesting points for further investiga- 

 tion,or, in some fewinstances, for amplification or correction when 

 the next edition of Mr. Layard's book is preparing for the press. 

 I may add that I have availed myself of the present opportunity 

 of correcting a few errors in my own lists of the birds of Natal, 

 and that 1 have to thank Mr. Layard for the aid which his re- 

 marks have afforded me in so doing. The species to which my 

 observations refer are noticed in the same order as that in which 

 they are arranged in Mr. Layard's Catalogue; and the num- 

 bers prefixed are those which are there applied to the several 

 species referred to. 



1. Gypaetus aieridionalis. Keys. & Bl. Southern Laem- 

 mergeyer. 



The genus Gypaetus appears to me to consist of but two J 

 species, G. harhatus and G. meridionalis. These, I think, are ' 

 certainly distinct, as the points in which they differ, though ap- 

 parently not very important, are yet very constant. 



They are thus defined by Dr. Riippell in his ' Vogel Nord-Ost- 

 Afrikas' (P- 1) :-^In Gypaetus meridionalis the tarsi, for above 

 a quarter of their length in front and inside, and for above half 

 of their length behind and outside, are bare of feathers and 

 reticulated; and the region of the corner of the mouth, extending 



* [It is with very deep regret that, while these pages are passing 

 through the press, we learn that the hope above expressed — a hope 

 which had been entertained, we are sure, by every ornithologist, can 

 never be realized, owing to the premature death of Mr. Andersson. — 

 Ed.] 



