Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, §c, 309 
of any naturalist out of the British Islands*,” finds no place in 
'The Ibis^ List of Desiderataf. 
Yours, &c., Beaven Bake. 
A letter, addressed to the Editor by Mr. J. J. Monteiro, who 
has already done good service in Angolan J ornithology, is dated 
from the province of Cam bam be, Angola, February 6th, 1861, 
and says,-— 
“ I have only time to pen these few lines to inform you 
that I am well, and that, despite the rainy season (now at its 
thickest), I have already managed to preserve thirty skins of dif¬ 
ferent species of birds. Nearly the whole are different from those 
I collected and noticed before at Bembe. Amongst the skins 
are several which I think are new, and all are very beautiful. 
Amongst those I suppose new is a Great Kingfisher from the 
Biver Quanza (Coanza of English maps). None of the descrip¬ 
tions of Kingfishers in Swainsoff's c Birds of Africa 5 (the only 
work I have at present with me) accord with my specimen. 
Another good piece of news is, that e Plantain Eaters/ and said 
to be of several species, abound within a few miles of my present 
locality, and so ‘ get-at-able ; that I have already purchased two 
live specimens of the Corythaix erythrolophus, of which one is 
in perfect health, and the other dead. As soon as the rainy 
season is over, I will obtain more skins, and very likely some 
new species. 
“ Please send my kindest regards to Dr. Hartlaub, and tell 
him that it would do him and you good to come and spend a 
few months on the magnificent river Coanza—magnificent not 
so much in size or body of water, as in vegetation, scenery, and 
ornithology. 
“ I am, unfortunately, removed from the vicinity of its finest 
part, which is as far as Cambambe (the fort and station of), 
though within a very few miles north of its unnavigable part. I 
am about thirty to forty miles west of Pungo Andongo.” 
* Vide Yarrell’s British Birds, 2nd edit. p. 42. 
f Sabine’s Snipe is considered, we believe, by the best authorities to be 
merely a melanism of the Common Snipe.— Ed. 
+ Cf. P. Z. S. 1860, p. 109. 
