484 Letters, Extracts, Notices, 8fc. 



that there is no difficulty in going there, as the Canary 

 Interinsular Mail Steamship Company, under contract with 

 the Spanish Government, runs a boat there once every month, 

 and offers return tickets from Teneriffe to Rio de Oro 

 for the sum of £2 10s. Here is a fine opportunity for 

 one of our wandering brotherhood to visit a new country ! 

 At the same time we are told that Rio de Oro is not an 

 attractive place (in spite of its name), as it is not safe to 

 venture far from the walls of the Spanish fort without an 

 escort, the natives being bitterly hostile. 



Waxwings in Italy. — Writing in 'Nature' of March 3rd 

 last, Dr. H. H. Giglioli, of Florence, calls attention to the 

 visit of flocks of the Waxwing to North Italy last winter. 

 He says : — (t This winter we have had a considerable invasion 

 of that beautiful northern bird, the Waxwing {Ampelis 

 garruhts). During December and January last they 

 appeared in hundreds in our northern provinces, and from 

 Yicenza, Padova, and Verona spread in flocks westward and 

 southward. I received the first specimens on December 18th, 

 1903, from Vicenza, and the last, from Barberino di Mugello 

 (Florence) and from Fano (Marche), on January 1st and 15th. 

 1 also heard from Nice that more than 200 specimens of this 

 bird, said to have come from Corsica, had been sold in the 

 market there/' 



The Percy Sladen Memorial Fund. — We learn from ' The 

 Times' of June 20th, that Mrs. Percy Sladen, the widow of 

 Mr. Percy Sladen, a well-known zoologist, at one time 

 Secretary of the Linnean Society, has given the sum of 

 £20,000 to Trustees, who are directed to apply the interest 

 of it to the promotion of scientific research, especially in the 

 sciences of Zoology, Geology, and Anthropology. The first 

 Trustees are Dr. Tempest Anderson, Mr. Bailey Saunders, 

 Mr. Henry Bury, Dr. Henry Woodward, Prof. Howes, and 

 Prof. Herdman. Ornithology, of course, comes within the 

 scope of this magnificent gift, and applications relating to 

 our branch of Zoology will, no doubt, receive due con- 

 sideration from the Trustees. 



