Letters, E.rtrarts, and Xotes. 217 



Expedition sent out in the year 1909 under the auspices of 

 the British Ornithologists' Union, and presented to the 

 Trustees by the Subscribers to the Expedition Fund. 



"The Trustees were informed that the collections received, 

 numbering altogether some 7870 specimens, of which about 

 2750 are birds and nearly 500 mammals, are of great 

 interest and importance, as coming, for the most part, from 

 a hitherto unexplored portion of a specially interesting 

 locality. They were impressed by the public spirit so 

 generously displayed by the Subscribers to the Fund, and 

 they directed me to request you to convey to the Committee 

 of the Expedition and to all the Subscribers the expression 

 of their special thanks. 



" The Trustees would add an assurance of their high 

 appreciation of the work of the members of the Expedition. 

 They recognise that this work entailed very arduous labours 

 on the part of these gentlemen, who underwent c«)nsiderable 

 hardships in carrying out the mission entrusted to them, the 

 result of which has been to enrich considerably the National 

 Collections.^' 



The collection of Birds is now being carefully examined 

 imder the superintendence of Mr. Ogilvie-Grant. and the 

 results will be published in 'The Ibis.' 



The Passenyer Pigeon. — h\ the new edition of the 

 American 'Check-list^ it is stated that the celebrated 

 Passenger Pigeon {Ectopistes migratorius), which formerly 

 bred in enormous quantities all over the forests of North 

 America, is " now probably extinct,'' and great researches 

 have been made to tind some possible survivors of a bird 

 formerly so abundant"^. From a recent number of the 

 'Zoological Society Bulletin' (No. 46, p. 781), we learn that 

 the only still living example of this species yet discovered 

 in the United States is a solitary female in the Zoological 

 Garden of Cincinnati, about nineteenyears old, so that there is 

 not much prospect of replacing the species in the list of living 

 Birds. On enquiry in Regent's Park we are informed that 



* See above, p. 187. 

 SEli. IX. \0\.. VI. Q 



