Dr. O. Finsch’s Ornithological Letter. 75 
7. CHETURA DOMINICANA. 
Chetura dominicana, Lawr. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Se. i. p. 255. 
Chetura poliura, Lawr. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. i. p. 62. 
Mr. Lawrence was quite right in separating this species from 
C. poliura (vide P. Z. 8S. 1870, p. 329). But although Buf- 
fon’s figure (Pl. Enl. 544. fig. 1) is very bad, I should have 
been inclined to refer the Dominican Chetura (mainly from 
the locality) to the ‘“ Hirondelle de la Martinique,” and to 
eall it Chetura acuta (Gm.). 
V.—Ornithological Letters from the Pacific. No. I. 
By Orro Finscu, Ph.D. 
Honolulu, July 28, 1879. 
Arter eight days’ stay in Washington, where I spent a 
pleasant time with Professor Baird and other old friends in 
the Smithsonian, and saw the foundations of the new grand 
Museum-building, we went straight through to the Pacific 
coast, and reached San Francisco on the 3lst of May. The 
members of the California Academy of Sciences most cordially 
welcomed me. The Academy unfortunately cannot yet dis- 
pose of the liberal gift of Mr. Lick (I believe 600,000 dollars), 
and therefore has still its head quarters in the old church. 
Their collections are very limited, and cannot be compared 
with those in Woodward’s Garden, which have been amassed 
by the zeal of Mr. Gruber, now keeper of the Museum there. 
Woodward’s Garden, although intended more for pleasure 
and amusement than pure science, is certainly a most inter- 
esting institution, and just what San Francisco and America 
generally require. Mr. Gruber has carried out an idea which 
Thad long ago in my mind, and which Mr. Wallace portrayed 
in the drawings of his work on the distribution of animals. 
This is a representation of the chief types of the different 
zoological centres of the globe by giving good illustrations of 
the fauna of the different parts of the earth in stuffed speci- 
mens, in accordance with the peculiar flora. This very in- 
structive invention, which Mr. Gruber calls a “‘Zoographicon” 
