Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 117 



remains of this species have been identified, namely, the end of 

 a premaxillare as far as the nostril, a right and left humerus, and 

 a right and left tibia. Professor Busk also, if we are rightly 

 informed, has himself found a portion of a skeleton of this bird 

 in a "kitchen-midden" in the northern part of the kingdom, 

 which he has deposited in the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons. The National Collection, too, has lately received from 

 Mr. J. M. Jones, of Halifax, N. S., an almost perfect skeleton of 

 this bird. The specimen was found on Funk Island, oif the 

 north-east coast of Newfoundland, under the same circumstances 

 as the one exhibited in November 1863 to the Zoological Society 

 (P. Z. S. 1863, pp. 435-438). We learn from the Bishop of 

 Newfoundland that all the peat-soil has now been removed from 

 that island ', so that future investigators into the Northern Pen- 

 guin's history will no longer reap a harvest in that locality. We 

 understand that two more of these natural " mummies " have 

 been saved, and sent to Professor Agassiz. 



We are glad to hear that Mr. E. Bartlett — son of the well- 

 known Superintendent of the Zoological Gardens — who accom- 

 panied Mr. Tristram's expedition to the Holy Land in the capa- 

 city of working-zoologist, is about to start for the River Amazons, 

 where he intends to remain for some time. The frightful dis- 

 aster which befell Mr. Wallace on his return from those regions, 

 effecting the complete destruction of all his valuable collections' 

 — treasures amassed during years of hard work — makes it ex- 

 tremely desirable that this part of South America should be 

 visited by a competent ornithologist, the more so seeing that 

 the sympathies of Mr. Bates were so much occupied by beetles 

 and butterflies, that he would have been more than human had 

 he been able to devote much time to birds. We look forward 

 with the greatest interest to Mr. Bartlett's proceedings, and 

 hope that in his arduous undertaking he will receive every 

 encouragement. 



Dr. Elliott Coues, whose discriminating papers on several 

 groups of North American birds are well known to many of 

 our readers, has been recently stationed by his Government at 



