Letters, Announcements, fyc. 331 



of describing species from fragments, there is doubtless much 

 truth in what he says ; but he might with equal reason go a 

 little farther, and object to an ornithologist describing a bird 

 before all the phases of plumage assumed in its life are known 

 to him. I need only cite the family of Hawks, to prove 

 that more errors have been committed by describing as dis- 

 tinct the same species in different stages of plumage (each of 

 which was only, so to speak, a fragment of the entire subject), 

 than is ever likely to result from descriptions founded solely 

 upon heads or tails. 



Great benefits have been bestowed already upon natural 

 science by the discoveries made from fragmentary remains, 

 and they far outweigh the comparatively few errors committed 

 from the same cause ; and until we arrive at that blissful period 

 when mistakes shall be no more, it would be a great pity to 

 neglect even piecemeal evidence in the study of a subject. 



Every naturalist knows how easy it is to commit mistakes ; 

 happy is the man whose quiver holds the fewest of them. 



Yours &c, 



D. G. Elliot. 



Sir,— In my letter of June 1872 (Ibis, 1872, p. 336) I 

 noticed the singular dearth of birds in that region of the ocean 

 traversed by me. I have again passed over much the same 

 route, sailing from Para on the 17th of March, and touching 

 at Madeira en route for Lisbon and England. The line we 

 described had a considerable northern curve, as our visit to 

 Madeira was only determined on when we found ourselves 

 short of provisions. 



We did not see a single bird after leaving the mouths ot 

 the Amazon till we came within a hundred miles of Madeira ; 

 then a solitary Petrel turned up, also we were visited by a 

 cock Greenfinch, a Sky- Lark, a Redpole Linnet, and two young 

 Red-headed Shrikes. I never saw so deserted a region ! And 

 the captain of our ship and another of the other line of 

 steamers plying between Lisbon and Para, who happened to 

 be on board, both assured me they never saw birds on their 



SER. III. — VOL. III. 2 A 



