220 
Letter's, Announcements , &c. 
dashed through the air, and the wonderful accuracy with which 
they seized the luckless insects, without permitting their own liight 
to be arrested in the least degree. Backwards, forwards, here, 
there, everywhere, they darted in all directions, and almost every 
instant we heard the snapping of their bills as they closed them 
on their ill-starred prey.” 
The second note is from our correspondent Mr. E. L. Layard 
of Cape Town, and is dated “ South African Museum, December 
19th, 1865.” It has reference to an inquiry of our own re¬ 
specting the swimming of Skuas (Ibis, 1865, p. 526), a subject 
on which we have already printed a letter from Mr. Whitely ( vide 
, supra, p. 127). Mr. Layard says, “ Stercorariusparasiticus con¬ 
stantly sits on the water and swims about hunting for food, and 
I have shot it more than once in the act of doing so. My son 
also has recalled to my mind that the first time he shot one was 
out of a flock sitting and swimming in Table Bay.” 
/ % u 
To Mr. Blyth we are indebted for some extracts from his 
Indian correspondence, which we doubt not will be welcome to 
our readers. The first is from Captain Blair, and refers to 
some birds of Boss Island, one of the Andaman cluster. It is 
dated Port Blair, June 1865 :— 
“ Copsychus saularis is common about houses and gardens, and 
is much more familiar than in Bengal. It sings very sweetly. 
“ Temenuchus erythropygius, common, apparently nesting now. 
1 captured a pair stealing plantains hung up in a store-room 
window. They were caged, but died at sea. 
<e Acridotheres tristis is common, and was, I believe, introduced 
by Col. Tytler, from Calcutta. The race, however, appears to 
be smaller and darker in colour than that of Bengal, approximating 
in this respect to that of Burmah. 
“ A pair of Coi'vus splendens, also introduced by Col. Tytler, 
are all that are left of those he brought, and, being probably of 
the same sex, have not bred. 
“ The Common Crow is very abundant—an undoubted Carrion- 
Crow, but, I think, erroneously referred to Corvus culminatus. 
It appears larger (I have not carefully examined specimens), and 
the caw is much more like that of an English Rook*. 
* True C. culminatus, E. B. 
