Letters, Announcements, b;c. 251 



bad. On the 29th I went about a dozen miles up the country. 

 I have as yet only procured a Kite, a Buzzard, a Kestrel, and a 

 Dove with a very long tail ; and these with the utmost ingenuity 

 will not make up material for a despatch ; but you may rest 

 assured that I will send you one as soon as I can. 



I am, &c., W. Jesse. 



Sir, — A mistake has crept into the notice of Mr. Lawrence's 

 Heliomaster spectabilis in the last number of * The Ibis ' (sujwa, 

 p. 115). I have a male specimen obtained by Arce in Costa 

 Rica, which cannot be specifically separated from the Eugenes 

 fulgens of Mexico and Guatemala. It is therefore not only pos- 

 sible, but more than probable, that H. spectabilis is identical 

 with E. fulgens, the only difference being the greater length of 

 the bill in the former, 



I have, &c., Osbert Salvin. 



Mr. Bartlett, the able and obliging superintendent of the 

 Zoological Gardens, has been kind enough to inform us that for 

 some weeks past a cock Apte7'yx mantelli in the menagerie has 

 been {more Kaiitarum) industriously incubating two eggs laid 

 by his mate, the old hen sent to England in 1850 (!) by the 

 then Governor of New Zealand. The proverb forbids our 

 counting our chickens before they are hatched; but we may in 

 this case not unreasonably look forward to some produce, for it 

 can hardly be that this exemplary husband should give himself 

 so much trouble unless he had good ground for expecting a 

 satisfactory result ; and we trust that the aged captive, his wife, 

 may see her old age surrounded by a flourishing family of young 

 Kiwis. 



The extensive collection of the late Prince Maximilian of 

 Wied is, we understand, for sale. We are informed that it 

 contains about 4000 specimens of 2358 species of birds, besides 

 a large number of other Vertebrata. It has been valued by 

 Professor Troschel of Bonn at j82000, and the widow of his 

 late Highness is very desirous of meeting with a purchaser who 

 will take the whole collection. 



