Letters, Announcements, fyc. 
223 
time ago a notice in { The Field 9 mentioning the dirty state of 
the nest before this would have been caused by the young; and 
if my idea is correct the explanation is simple. I never saw the 
males go inside the holes in which the nests were; and I never 
saw either of the females outside during the time they were 
hatching, though of course it is possible they may have gone 
out. If I should live, I will next spring observe more carefully; 
but it was a good while before I noticed the absence of the 
females this year. Last year I had one nest only in the 
verandah, and another in the verandah of my office. The 
Hoopoe, I know, breeds in France; and possibly you may be 
able to find out if any notice of this fact has been taken.” 
Professor Baird has kindly transmitted to us some extracts 
from old or little-known works bearing reference to the former 
occurrence of Alca impennis on the coast of America. The 
earliest of these is from “A discourse and discovery of New- 
found-land, etc., written by Capitaine Richard Whitbourne of 
Exmouth in the County of Devon * * * Imprinted at London, 
by Felix Kinston, 1622,” and is as follows : — 
“ There are also birds that live by prey, as Ravens, Gripes 
[Eagles], Crowes, etc. For water fowle there is certainly so 
good and as much variety as in any part of the world, as geese, 
ducks, pigeons, gulls, Penguins, and many other sorts. 
“ These penguins are as bigge as geese, and fly not, for they 
have but a little short wing, and they multiply so infinitely upon 
a certain Hand that men drive them from thenes upon a board 
into their boats by hundreds at a time, as if God had made the 
innocency of so poor a creature to become such an admirable 
instrument for the sustentation of man.” 
Another from “New Englands rarities discovered in birds, 
beasts, fishes, serpents, and plants of that country, etc. By 
John Josselyn Gent: London, 1672,” runs thus :— 
“The wobble an ill-shaped fowl, having no long feathers in 
their pinions which is the reason why they cannot fly, not much 
under the Penguin ; they are in the spring very fat or rather 
oyly, but pulled and garbridged and laid to the fire to roast 
they yield not one drop. 
