238 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, fyc. 
white feathers, spotted with black, like those of the Song-Thrush; 
the feathers under the tail were quite white. After a short time 
the yellowish circle of the neck disappeared. In July of the 
present year it began to change the feathers of the lower parts, 
and in September it already resembled very nearly the Song- 
Thrush, retaining only a few black feathers on the breast, which 
shortly disappeared. I was in expectation of future changes, 
when early in October it escaped. It ate chopped meat and 
the flour of maize. In spring it did not sing; its sit was like 
that of the Song-Thrush. 
I believe it to be a cross of the Song-Thrush and the Black¬ 
bird (Turdus merula). 
Yours, &c., 
Dr. Thomas Salvadori. 
The following extract is from a letter of Professor Baird, 
dated Washington, December 26 :— 
“Mr. Kennicott has returned from his nearly four years' 
absence in Arctic America. His last collections have not yet 
reached us, but will be here in a few weeks. They embrace 
many valuable things, especially in the line of eggs. On their 
arrival, I will write you further on the subject. 
“Another item of intelligence is that Mr. Xantus, so well 
known by his labours at Fort Tejon and Cape St. Lucas, has 
just leftWashington for Manzanilla, on the west coast of Mexico, 
in the capacity of U. S. Consul, to reside a year or two. He 
has taken out an enormous outfit, and is prepared to capture 
everything the country affords. He will undoubtedly collect 
thousands of skins of birds, and his collection will be the means 
of identifying the geographical distribution of Mexican birds 
with great precision. He will probably get many new and rare 
species; and if he extends his travels to the islands of Tres 
Marias, Locorro, &c., as is probable, the results will be still 
more important. We really know almost nothing of the west 
part of Mexico, north of Acapulco, no large collection having 
ever been made there. Mr. Xantus visited Mazatlan in the 
summer of 1861, and in a week's time got twelve new species of 
