Letters, Extracts, Announcements, &c. 379 
Mr. Gould’s ‘ Humming-birds’—Mr. Gould, we under- 
stand, has in contemplation the issue of a supplementary 
volume to his great work on the Trochilide, for which he 
has long been collecting drawings and materials. The new 
species discovered since the monograph was completed in 
1861 are numerous, and many of them of a most striking 
character, and will afford ample scope for such a work. 
Acquisitions of the British Museum in the Class of Birds 
im 1879-80%. 
Birds.—The total number of acquisitions amounts to 3312, 
of which 700 belong to the series from the Indian Museum. 
Fifty-eight species were entirely new to the collection. 
The following accessions may be specially mentioned :— 
Twenty-five skins of Willow-Warblers (Phylloscopus) from 
various localities ; presented by Henry Seebohm, Esq.  Fifty- 
seven specimens from the collection formed by Dr. Hilde- 
brandt im Eastern Africa, six species being new to the 
collection ; purchased. Three specimens from the Samoan 
Islands, including the type of Pinarolestes porrell from Tu- 
tuila; presented by the Rev. Thomas Porrell, of Upolu, 
Samoa. Thirty specimens from Betsileo, Madagascar ; pur- 
chased. Twenty-five specimens from India and Burmah, ten 
of the species being new to the collection; purchased. The 
type specimen of Dromeocercus seebohmi, a new species of 
Warbler, and a very rare Owl (Heliodilus soumagnii) from 
Madagascar ; purchased. Specimens of a very interesting in- 
sular form of Land-Rail (Rallus gularis, var.+) from the island 
of Aldabra, discovered and presented by Captain Wharton, 
of H.M.S. ‘Fawn.’ Sixty-nine specimens from the neigh- 
bourhood of Port Moresby, S.H. New Guinea, collected by 
Mr. Kendal Broadbent, and containing sixteen species not 
previously represented in the British Museum, among which 
are the types of Aprosmictus broadbenti and Pecilodryas fla- 
* Extracted from the Parliamentary Return “of the Income and Ex- 
penditure of the British Museum for the year ended the 31st day of 
March 1880,” &c. 
+ Of. Ginther, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vol. iii. p. 164 (1879). 
