6 ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS MADE DURING [Jan. 4, 



7. Ctenomys magellanicus, Benn. 



A spirit specimen from Pechett Harbour. 



8. OCTODON DEGUS, Mol. 



Two skins from Coquimbo (June 1879). 



9. Myopotamus coypu, Mol. 



A skin from Swallow Bay (March 21, 1880), and a skin and skeleton 

 from Talcahuano, Concepcion (September 1879). 



10. Physalus, sp. 



A cervical vertebra and two tympanic bones of a species of this 

 genus, obtained at Point Rosario, are in the collection, but are not 

 sufficient to enable me to identify the species. 



Besides these specimens, Dr. Coppiuger discovered, in caves on 

 the cliffs, various human and mammalian remains, of which, we 

 may hope, he himself will give an account, with full details of the 

 circumstances under which they were found. 



II. BIRDS. 



By R. BowDLER Sharpe. 



Although the region in which Dr. Coppinger has been working 

 has already received considerable attention from ornithologists, so 

 that no novelties are to be expected, yet the careful way in which 

 Dr. Coppinger has prepared and labelled his specimens, and the 

 localities and dates he gives, render his collections very interesting. 

 The following extracts are taken from one of his letters, in 

 which he alludes to the localities where his first collection was 

 obtained. Writing from Coquimbo in June 1879, Dr. Coppinger 

 observes : — " The collection of birds will appear, at first sight, very 

 incomplete, at least when compared with those which have been 

 been made by ships previously employed in surveying in the Ma- 

 gellan region. I wish, therefore, to call attention to the circum- 

 stance that the surveying operations of the ' Alert ' have hitherto 

 been confined to the archipelago fringing the west coast of Pata- 

 gonia, and chiefly to the neighbourhood of the Trinidad Channel in 

 50° S. latitude, where the rainfall is excessive, and the Bird-fauna 

 scanty as compared with that part of the Magellan region situated 

 to the eastward of Port Famine and Sandy Point." 



A few eggs were also sent by Dr. Coppinger ; but they call for 

 very few remarks, having already in most cases been described by 

 Professor Newton (Ibis, 1870, p." 501). 



In the present paper I have referred to the three essays published 

 in the ' Ibis ' by Messrs. Sclater and Sal\ in, as follows : — 



1. "List of Birds collected in the Straits of Magellan by Dr. 

 Cunningham, with remarks on the Patagonian Avifauna," Ibis, 

 1868, pp. 183-189. 



