* ORNITHOLOGY OF THE COASTS AND ISLANDS 
honoured leader of the expedition, Mr. Ribeiro dos Sanctos himself, 
on the 16th January, 1842. 
The museum committee received an equally kind offer on the part 
of Mr. Epffenhausen, in the spring of 1847, for the equipment of 
Mr. H. Weiss, who in June of that year sailed for the west coast, 
in the ship Adolphus. His instructions directed him at first to the 
investigation of the group of islands lying in the Gulf of Guinea, 
the zoology and botany of which are still so little known, although 
much peculiarity is to be expected from their position and forma- 
tion, and their healthy climate is not perilous to the life of the 
European like that of the coast; but by accustoming him to the 
peculiar modes of life in a warm zone, it teaches him to protect 
himself against the hurtful influence of coast fever. Our traveller 
arrived on the 20th August, 1847, at the Portuguese island of 
St. Thomas, from thence, a very favourable opportunity presenting 
itself, he made a trip to the Gold Coast, and returned by Prince's 
Island to St. Thomas. The three packages received from him up 
to this time, confirm our supposition, that still much may be gained 
here for science, of the most valuable kind; and the museum of 
natural history has been put in possession of many novelties, parti- 
cularly in the department of Ornithology, the descriptions of which 
have been undertaken by Dr. G. Hartlanb in Bremen, correspond- 
ing member of our Association for Natural Science.” 
Dr. Hartlaub has taken great pains in consulting the various 
authorities who have noticed the species from these regions of 
Africa, and has drawn up a list, amounting to no less than 505* 
species, adding to each the locality and authority for it, together 
with their distribution in the north and south of the continent oF 
in Europe. These observations, on their geographical distribution, 
will be read with interest’ by every Ornithologist. 
“ The zoological collections which have arrived at the Hamburg 
Museum, from the traveller Carl Weiss, in two different consig2 
ments from the Western Coast of Africa, present enough of new and 
interesting facts in the field of Ornithology, to join with them som? 
general observations on the birds of this region. These collections 
were principally found in three localities ; namely, on Prince’s Island 
and St, Thomas’, both situate near the Equator, and at Elmina 
* In the Prince of Canino’s Conspectus Avium, sixteen birds are mentioned from 
Western Africa, which are not in Dr. Hartlaub’s present list —iner easing the nut 
ber recorded as from these regions to 521. 
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