462 Letters , Extracts from Correspondence , Notices , 8fc. 
d’Histoire Naturelle de Pile de Meurice 9 in existence for many 
years, no connected account has ever appeared of the natural 
productions of this and the neighbouring islands, and their 
Fauna maybe said to he almost unknown to European zoologists. 
Knowing Mr. Newton’s zeal in the f good cause/ and the energy 
he has already shown in the Tropics of the Western Hemisphere, 
we look forward with much pleasure to the access of zoological 
knowledge likely to ensue from his residence in so interesting a 
part of the Eastern world. 
Letters received from Mr. Newton, dated during his voyage down 
the Red Sea, say—“Altogether I have seen a good many birds; 
between Malta and Alexandria, Nightingales ( Philomela luscinia), 
a Salicaria (probably arundinacea ), Turtur risorius, and Tringoides 
hypoleucus; between Alexandria and Cairo large flocks of Waders 
— Totanus glottis and other smaller species, Aquila ncevioides and 
Milvus agyptius (common), Falco tinnunculus, apparently migra¬ 
ting towards the north-west, as also Merops apiaster, Hirundo 
rufula (?) and another species like H. riparia *, the last two in 
flocks of thousands, evidently migrating, but going the wrong- 
way for this time of year—how is this ? ” 
The following extracts are from Mr. Fraser’s last letters. The 
first is dated Quito, June 14th :— 
“ I propose going hence to Bodegas, there to make my head¬ 
quarters, and to hunt the country round as high as Guaranda. 
You may judge of the state of things here (caused by the block¬ 
ade of the coast by the Peruvians and the civil war), when I tell 
you that I have been trying for a full month to get boxes for my 
present collection, and have not yet succeeded. We are in doubt 
whether we shall have provisions to eat in a day or two. The 
second portion of my Pallatanga collection (which place, by-the- 
by, is about 4000 feet above the sea-level—about the same as 
Nanegal) has been blockaded in Riobamba ever since December 
last, and the same may be said of my collection here. Allow 
me to suggest your arranging my collections according to the 
altitudes of the localities, and not as in the list t before me, 
* Probably Cotyle rupestris. — Ed. 
t Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 449 et seq. A separate list of birds from 
Cuenca is given at p. 450. 
