762 General Notes. 
doro stands by itself we have yet to discover. Each of these 
divisions has its own peculiar species of such test families as the 
hornbills, woodpeckers, tailor-birds, sun-birds, pittas, and king- 
fishers, and in many cases several peculiar species of each. 
_ _ Yours truly, 
J. B. STEERE. 
—Epitors NATURALIST :— Not long since I passed a day at 
Ward and Howell’s Natural History establishment at Rochester, 
and I was so much interested and surprised, that I have thought 
that some of the readers of the NATURALIST would be glad to know 
more of this, the most extensive establishment of its kind in the 
world, I had bought several thousand dollars worth of specimens 
of various kinds from Ward and Howell in fitting up the museum 
of the School of Mines and I had found it a great help to be able 
to obtain at a fair price authentic, reliable material needed to illus- 
trate lectures upon geology and natural history, and not to be 
procured through any other channel. But until I stopped at 
Rochester and went through the establishment, I had no conception 
of the great variety and excellence of the material available for 
science teaching that was here accessible with the growing interest 
in scientific studies, and the increasing appreciation of the value of 
object teaching, that man is a public benefactor who will supply to 
us at a reasonable cost, all things necessary to illustrate lessons an 
lectures. This, Ward and Howell can do to a greater degree than 
any one person, firm or company in the world. This statement 
may be regarded as an exaggeration, but after considerable experi- 
ence with the dealers in natural history material abroad, I do not 
hesitate to repeat it with emphasis. Professor Ward is himself an 
educated, scientific man, well up in geology, mineralogy and 
zoology ; he also has a passion for adventure and collecting, which 
has carried him more nearly “all over the world ” than any one 
else of whom I have known or heard, After his stock of the more 
common things was large enough, he gave himself up for years to 
the search of rarities. For example, some years since an interest 
was excited in the structure of Hatteria, and many biologists 
desired to study its pineal eye and other matters connected with its 
anatomy, but none were to be had; so Professor Ward, as he has 
often done, organized an expedition to find and obtain the desidera- 
tum. In this case it was necessary to search for long distances 
along the coast of New Zealand before the haunt of this peculiar 
lizard was reached, and a sufficient number was captured to supply 
the wants of the museums of Europe and America. ge 
fe and his assistants have scoured India, Borneo, Africa an 
South America for rarities and always with a degree of thorough- 
ness and intelligence that secured success. Recently, when a g 
