Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 551 



varies very much in length, but that the average length of the 

 full-grown specimen is 1 inch." 



In a letter dated June 2, 1865, Dr. von Frantzius, so well 

 known for the numerous new species of Costa Rica birds disco- 

 vered by him, writes as follows to Professor Baird respecting 

 Tetragonops frantzii, described and figured in ' The Ibis ' for 1864 

 (p. 371, Plate X.):— 



" After much labour I have at length succeeded in obtaining 

 another specimen of the new Tetragonops, and, indeed, from a 

 new locality, the foot of Turrialba, near Birris or Cervantes. 

 The bird is there called " Galinilla," because its cry resembles 

 that of a chicken. It lives socially in flocks, and is said to be 

 especially abundant in June." 



At the recent Meeting of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science at Birmingham a letter was read in 

 Section D (Zoology and Botany), from Mr. Edward Newton, 

 relating to a " Remarkable Discovery of Bones of Didus in the 

 Island of Rodriguez." These bones were sent to that gentle- 

 man by Mr. George Jenner, the magistrate of Rodriguez, whom 

 Mr. E. Newton had requested to carry on researches in the 

 caves visited by him last year [antea, p. 152). Among the 

 bones there were remains of a great many individuals, ap- 

 parently all of one species, but of two sizes, the difference 

 being probably owing to sex. The most plentiful bones were 

 tibiae, of which there were one or two quite perfect, with the 

 antero-proximal ends well preserved. There were also several 

 very good femora and metatarsi, portions of three or more pelves, 

 the anterior end of a coracoid, several humeri, an ulna, and two 

 radii, and a phalanx of the middle toe. Of these the upper end 

 of the tibia, the portions of the pelvis and of the coracoid, the 

 ulna, radius, and phalanx are bones which appear not to have 

 been found before, and their discovery is therefore a matter of 

 very great interest. These specimens have since arrived in 

 England, and being now in our hands we can confirm the par- 



