Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 
403 
occupied by the French):—“Around these delicious pools our 
boys caught many ducks ; these birds seem to come from 
the south ; they flop down exhausted at the edge of the 
water, and the villagers catch them whenever they feel in¬ 
clined. The nearest open water to the south is Lake Chad, 
three hundred and fifty miles away. 
“ These ducks at Bilma, the many smaller birds which 
we picked up farther north, and the Quails we saw near 
Budduma, prove I think sufficiently that the Sahara is 
constantly crossed by flights of birds migrating from the 
Central African countries to the north, and a systematic 
study of the matter would, no doubt, throw fresh light on 
many interesting facts concerning their habits. Besides the 
ducks we saw no birds in the oasis except the Common 
Vulture, the Hawk, and great numbers of the white and 
black variety of Raven, which is also met with in Nigeria.” 
So far as we know, this is a district to which no Ornith¬ 
ologist has as yet ever penetrated. It could, however, we 
suppose, be reached with the help of the French authorities 
in Algeria. 
Introduction of Paradise-birds into the West Indies. —From 
an article in the last number of the f Avicultural Magazine ' 
(ser. 3, vol. ii. p. 142) we learn that Sir William Ingram has 
acquired an island in the West Indies (Little Tobago) for 
the purpose of acclimatizing Paradise-birds, and thus pre¬ 
serving them from the utter extinction which will certainly 
befall them unless some steps are taken to guard them from 
destruction. Out of 56 living examples of Paradisea apoda , 
brought from the Aru Islands by the late Mr. Stalker, 48 
were set free on Sir William's uninhabited island, and 
placed under the care of an “intelligent Swiss sailor," 
Robert Herold. We trust that this experiment may prove 
successful, and that the birds may thrive and breed in their 
new quarters. At the same time we venture to express an 
opinion that one of the smaller Aru Islands would perhaps 
have been a more suitable repository for these precious birds, 
which are, of course, utterly foreign to the Neotropical Avi¬ 
fauna and quite ignorant of the proper food to be eaten by 
them in the West Indies. We quite agree, however, with 
