Letters, Announcements, S^c. 109 



shall undertake the mammals and the pelagic fauna and, jointly 

 with Dr. Salvadori, the birds. These last will be the first out. 

 I am, &c., Henry Hillyer Giglioli. 



Museum of Natural History, 

 Paris, 5 August, 1868. 



Sir, — I have just ascertained that the interesting little bird 

 lately referred with some doubt to the genus Drymceca, and 

 described by Mr. Swinhoe {antea, p. 62) under the name of D. 

 joeA:mensw, should have another position. Our museum possesses 

 four examples of it ; and on comparing them with the Australian 

 genus Amytis, it is impossible not to place them in it, although 

 their tarsi are shorter than in that. The form of the bill, the 

 operculated nostrils, the short wings, the long graduated tail, 

 and, finally, the long bristles at the base of the bill, as well 

 as the texture of the plumage, are sufficient to indicate the 

 place of the species in the series. If Mr. Swinhoe had had 

 under his eyes an Amytis, he certainly would not have assigned 

 this bird to Dnjmceca. Our four examples come from the 

 neighbourhood of Pekin, and. were sent to us, the first in 1865, 

 by the Pere Armand David, and the others this year. As is 

 elsewhere the case in this genus, there is no difierence between 

 the sexes of Amytis pekinensis. 



If you can find a small space in ' The Ibis ' for this observa- 

 tion, be good enough to bring it to the notice of ornithologists, 

 and receive, &c. 



J. P. Verreaux. 



Public Library of the University of Cambridge, 

 August 1868. 

 Sir, — Understanding that a knowledge of the precise dates 

 at which the various Livraisons of Temminck and Laugier's 

 ' Nouveau Recueil de Planches coloriees d^Oiseaux' appeared 

 would be of interest to ornithologists, as afl\)rding them the 

 means of settling various disputed questions of priority of no- 

 menclature, I have been induced to draw up the following list, 

 which will answer that purpose, and may be the more acceptable 

 since it shows that there was much irregularity in the publica- 

 tion of the work. 



