118 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, 8^c. 



Fort Whipple in Arizona — " a month's journey from anywhere." 

 We trust that the sojourn in the wilderness of this pains-taking 

 naturalist may be productive of very great good to ornithology. 

 He writes to us full of enthusiasm on account of the grand field 

 of research that lies around him. He tells us of a new species of 

 Spizetla, " very like S. socialis, but smaller, with a much longer 

 tail, and a very dark ash-coloured breast as in S. atrigularis, but 

 wanting the gula atra of that species, and otherwise diflfering 

 from it." 



We have great pleasure in mentioning that, among the works 

 announced as preparing for publication by the Ray Society, is 

 a translation of Nitzsch^s learned work on ' Pterylographie,' 

 which has hitherto remained a sealed book to almost all English 

 ornithologists. When we consider that herpetologists draw 

 some of their best characters for the classification of reptiles 

 from the arrangement of the scales, it is surprising that the 

 importance of the arrangement of the feathers in birds should 

 have been so long disregarded. We understand that the Society 

 has been so fortunate as to become possessed of the original 

 plates which illustrated this work, and that being in unimpaired 

 condition, they will be used for the translation, an advantage 

 which is as real as it was unexpected. The preparation of this 

 book is entrusted to Mr. P. L. Sclater, so that nothing more 

 need be said to recommend it. We have only to add that the 

 Society's Secretary is Mr. H.T. Stain ton, of Mountsfield, Lew- 

 isham, who will no doubt be happy to receive the names and 

 subscriptions of such of our readers as are desirous of possessing 

 this most important work. 



We regret to see, by a notice in a late number of the ' Journal 

 fiir Ornithologie,' that Pastor C. L. Brehm, author of so many 

 works on ornithology, and, we believe, the oldest ornithologist in 

 Europe, died on the 23rd June last, at Renthendorf, in Saxony. 

 Dr. Baldamus promises us a memoir of the deceased naturalist, 

 whose labours, whether for good or evil, certainly deserve such 

 an acknowledgment. 



