172 Lettars, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 
i\ntipodeau brethren on this new departure in the way of 
protective legislation. 
P/'o/. Davenport' s Caution to Splitters ! — ^' There is only 
one class of zoologists that I ^onld wish to blot out_, and 
that is the class whose reckless naming of new ^species'* 
and ' varieties ' serves only to extend our work and the 
tables of the conscientious synonym-hunter. Other than 
such all classes will contribute to the advancement of Science. 
No doubt there are unlabeled species, and no doubt they 
mustj as things are_, be named. And no duubt genera and 
families must be revised and some groups split up and others 
lumped. So welcome to the old-fashioned systematist, 
though his day be shorty and may he treat established genera 
gently ! ■''' — Prof. C. P. Davenport, in his Address to the 
Section of Zoology of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science^ at Denver^ Col./U.S.A., 1901. 
Further Abyssinian Exploration. — We have the pleasure 
of announcing that the well-known collector, Mr. Edward 
Degen_, is going out to Abyssinia to join Col. Harrington at 
Adis Abeba, and that all his collections are to be sent to 
the British Museum. Mr. Degen will commence to collect 
zoological specimens to the north of Adis Abeba^ and 
gradually work northwards to Lake Tana. 
The Irruption of the Nutcracker in the Autumn of 1900. — 
An extract from the ' Schwalbe/ kindly sent to us by Victor 
Hitter vonTschusi zu Schmidhoffen, gives further particulars 
of the invasion of the Slender-billed or Siberian form of the 
Nutcracker {Nucifraga caryocatactes) into North-eastern 
Europe in the autumn of 1900, which, although not to be 
compared with the great invasion of 184i, was spread over a 
large area. Particulars are given of many occurrences in 
Bohemia and Moravia, and of a few in Silesia, Upper and 
Lower Austria, Hungary, and Croatia. We know also that 
some of the flock reached Holland (see BuU.B.O.C. xi. p. 48), 
and one at least appears to have strayed as far as England, 
