116 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, i^c. 



distinct from the common Hock-Pipit of our coasts {A. obscurus). 

 Mr. John Hancock also has had the goodness to inform us that 

 he has in his collection a specimen of a Pipit obtained in this 

 country, which, he is inclined to believe, diflfers from A. obscurus. 

 We hope in our next Number to receive some additional infor- 

 mation which may assist in clearing up the confusion still 

 existing about the European species of Rock-Pipits, one at least 

 of which, from the great seasonal change of plumage it appears 

 to undergo, is rather a puzzling bird. 



The following is an extract from a letter recently addressed 

 by Mr. John Cassin, of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of 

 Philadelphia, U. S. A., to Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S :— 



"The Academy of Natural Sciences had presented to it, 

 some thirty years since, the engraved copper-plates of Vieillot^s 

 ' Oiseaux de TAmerique Septentrionale ' and of Audebert and 

 Vieillot^s ' Oiseaux Dores,' with a large collection of books and 

 of objects, like these plates, of only incidental interest and 

 scientific value. These plates having remained in possession 

 of the Academy for that considerable period, without having 

 been used for any purpose, I have been authorized to sell them 

 at the price here of refuse or old copper. My aversion to their 

 destruction I cannot overcome, however unreasonable it may be j 

 and I write to you in relation to them, hoping that, if a notice 

 is inserted in the ' Ibis,^ a purchaser may be possibly found, 

 who will preserve them, or to whom they may be useful. Of 

 the ' Oiseaux Dores ' there are many plates, as the work was 

 printed in colours : frequently several copper-plates were used in 

 printing one bird. The plates of both works are believed to be 

 complete, though I have never critically examined them, nor 

 compared them with the published work. They are, apparently, 

 in entirely good condition.^' 



Those who take an interest in the history of Alca impennis 

 may like to know that, among a set of birds^ bones from a place 

 of ancient interment on the coast of Caithness, which has been 

 lately submitted to Professor Owen by Mr. Carter Blake, some 



