MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES &C, xlv 
moat effectual way to accomplish Mr. Blyth’s object will be to pub¬ 
lish some extracts from his letter which we have no doubt will be 
responded to by some of our Natural History contributors and rea¬ 
ders : 
tc Tliis is one of several similar catalogues which I have ready or 
nearly ready for the Press ; and in the mammalia and bird depart¬ 
ments I have very extensive materials for a catalogue of our Malay¬ 
an species, which I trust some day to treat of in a similar way. 
“ That you will render me all the aid in your power, consistent 
with the other and more important calls upon your time and atten¬ 
tion, towards enabling me to collect materials for such series of com¬ 
parisons, I feel assured ; and therefore I write now less to ask your 
co-operation, than to open a correspondence on subjects of Natural 
History, in which we may perhaps be mutually useful to each other. 
“ Should you desire the names of species, and more especially of 
Vertebrata and Shells, you have my humble services at your com¬ 
mand. I could either label collections sent to me for the purpose, 
and then to be returned, or series of duplicate specimens ; or for 
the purpose of obtaining the names of species, the merest fragments 
of specimens of mammalia and birds would generally suffice to ena¬ 
ble me to recognise them with facility. 
“ You have as I understand two able Conchologists at Singa¬ 
pore. Our co-Secretary, Mr. Laidlay, is also distinguished in this 
line: and we should be delighted to receive series of duplicate spe¬ 
cimens, more especially of the land and fresh-water shells of the vi¬ 
cinity of the Straits, for which in return we could send those of In¬ 
dia and more especially of Bengal. 
“ Of other desiderata generally, in the Zoological department, I 
shall not treat on the present occasion. I believe that our museum 
contains a nearly completed collection of the mammalia and birds of 
the Malayan peninsula; but is deficient in the reptiles, and still more 
so in the fishes. The only species I feel curious to ask about now, 
is the second species of Collocalia, or diminutive Swift which 
builds the edible nests, mentioned in a late number of your Journal. 
I should like very much to receive specimens of this, and of its nest; 
