614 Letters, Notes, and Extracts. 



Feb. 8th (see above, p. 394) the c Valhalla ' passed up the 

 Mozambique Channel, but was unable to visit the islands 

 there (as had been intended) owing to bad weather. The 

 next places landed at were, therefore, Mayotte, Comoro 

 Islands, and Diego Suarez, N.E. Madagascar, at both of 

 which collections were made. Thence the yacht proceeded 

 to the islands of Glorioso, Assumption, and Aldabra, and 

 subsequently to the Seychelles, where Mahe, Praslin, and 

 Felicite* were visited. The return home was made by the 

 Red Sea and the Suez Canal. During the voyage Mr. Nicoll 

 collected rather more than 500 specimens of birds, besides 

 mammals, fishes, and other animals. 



Mr. Nicoll and Mr. Meade-Waldo both attended the 

 meeting of the B. O. C. on May 16th, and gave an account of 

 their most interesting journey (see Bull. B. O. C. xvi. 

 pp. 92-95). 



Lord Crawford has presented the whole of the collections 

 made during this voyage to the British Museum, and 

 Mr. Nicoll is now engaged in working out the birds. We 

 hope to be able to publish his account of them in one of the 

 next numbers of this Journal. 



Mr. Scntfs Investigation of Bird-life. — Mr. W. E. D. Scott, 

 the author of c The Story of a Bird-lover/ writes to us on 

 February 12th from " Shawnee on Delaware, Pennsylvania," 

 the headquarters of the " Worthington Society for the 

 Investigation of Bird-life," of which he is now Director, that 

 he has been fully engaged in building operations during the 

 past eighteen months. A series of indoor Aviaries " with 

 spacious outdoor flights" has been completed, as also a 

 library, a series of studies, a large laboratory, and rooms for 

 the attendants and officers. Ten large outdoor aviaries are 

 also ready, and twenty-five breeding-cages are in process of 

 construction. In these will be carried on practical experi- 

 ments in breeding, matters of heredity, and the like. 



