204 Mr. H. Seebohm on the 



though I never saw more than two or three of them together. 

 Its chief characteristics are the long snake-like neck and the 

 beautifully marked black and silver scapulars. 



XVI. Notes on the Birds of Astrakhan. 

 By HENRY SEEBOHM. 



WHEN I was in Dresden in the summer of 1881, with Dr. 

 Sclater and Mr. Forbes, I made a great ornithological dis- 

 covery. Herr Hofrath Dr. Meyer, with his accustomed 

 felicity in pointing out to each visitor of the Museum what- 

 ever is of special individual interest, introduced me to Herr 

 K. G. Henke, the ornithologist who accompanied Baron 

 Hoffmannsegg to the valley of the Petchora about twenty to 

 twenty-five years ago. When I told him what trouble Harvie- 

 Brown and I took to find him out in 1875, he accounted for 

 our failure by explaining that he was then living in Astrakhan, 

 where he had resided for eight years. He devoted the whole 

 of his time to collecting objects of natural history, principally 

 ornithological, and disposed of many of his duplicates through 

 the well-known dealer Herr Schliiter of Halle, from whom 

 many very interesting skins and eggs of birds have been 

 received by ornithologists in England and elsewhere, labelled 

 " Untere Volga " and " Kirgische Steppen." Most, if not 

 all, of these were collected by Henke, those from the former 

 locality having been obtained in the delta of the Volga south 

 of Astrakhan, and those from the latter locality on the great 

 salt marshes lying between the Volga and the Ural rivers. 



Henke's collection ought to be visited by every ornitholo- 

 gist interested in the birds of the Palaearctic Region. Two or 

 three hours' railway journey from Dresden, through some of 

 the finest scenery of " Saxon Switzerland," brings you to the 

 little town of Sebnitz, whence you can walk (or, if you are 

 lazy, drive in a cab) four miles to Saupsdorf, where Henke 

 lives. Sixpence will admit you to a most charming little 

 museum, full of birds and other objeets of interest, princi- 

 pally from Astrakhan and Archangel. 



