o04 Letters, Announcements, S^c. 



diffcient points of interest furnished by this discovery, feeling 

 sure that he will neglect none of them in telling the story his 

 own way. 



Our readers will be glad to hear that Mr. Walter Buller in- 

 tends to bring out a work on the " Birds of New Zealand/' for 

 which he has long been making preparations. His ' Essay' on 

 the ornithology of that colony, which we noticed some time ago 

 (Ibis, 1867, pp. 132, 133), showed that considerable progress 

 in the knowledge of its interesting avifauna had been made since 

 Mr. G. R. Gray's ' List ' appeared in the pages of this Journal 

 (Ibis, 1862, pp. 214-252) ; and the recent labours of Herr 

 Finsch and Dr. Haast (J. f. O. 1867, pp. 305-347 ; 1868, 

 pp. 238-245) prove that the subject is not exhausted. Mr. 

 Buller's work is to be published by Mr. Van Voorst, who will 

 doubtless be happy to receive the names of intending sub- 

 scribers. 



While on this theme we may mention that, through the 

 kindness of a correspondent, we have received a beautiful series 

 of photographs of the skeletons of various species of Dinornis, 

 taken by Mr. D. L. Mundy from specimens in the Museum at 

 Christchurch, N. Z. ; and we understand that copies may be 

 obtained from Mr. Haskins, of No. 27 The Crescent, Darnley 

 Road, Hackney. 



We regret to find that nothing came of the laudable in- 

 cubatory attempt on the part of Aptenjx mantelli which we 

 I'ecorded a short while since {antea, p. 251). We can only 

 wish for better luck next time. 



We have great pleasure in announcing the safe return of Mr. 

 W. Jesse, whose appointment as zoologist to the Abyssinian 

 Expedition we announced some months ago {antea, p. 134). 

 After the departure of the troops, Mr. Jesse set out on a journey 

 into the interior of the Bogos country, where we hear he was 

 very tolerably successful. 



