Letters, Announcements, fyc. 
459 
only an extremely limited number of copies of this pamphlet 
have been printed The one before us is is made up of printer’s 
proofs sent by the author to Mr. Dresser. This is to be 
regretted, as the chief portion of the paper consists of notes 
of birds observed and collected by Mr. W. H. Elliott, many 
of which are interesting, especially those on the singular 
Alcidse of the North Pacific. In this paper, too, Tringa 
ptilocnemis is described for the first time by Dr. Coues. This 
species has already to carry a synonym, it having been 
described by Mr. Harting, from Mr. Elliott’s specimens sent 
to him by the Smithsonian Institution, as Tringa gracilis 
(P. Z. S. 1874, p. 242, Aug. 1st). 
XLV.-— Letters, Announcements, fyc. 
The following letters, addressed “ To the Editor of ‘ The 
Ibis,’ ” have been received:— 
Dear Sir, —Allow me to make a few observations upon 
some of the birds referred to in f The Ibis ’ for April 1874. 
Phyllopneuste borealis, Blasius, p. 140. 
Lord Walden of course knows that P. magnirostris, Blyth, 
is exceedingly like P. borealis —so much so, that Mr. Hume 
( f Stray Feathers,’ i. p. 495) confounded the two. I am 
anxious to know if Lord Walden is certain in this identifica¬ 
tion of No. 79 as P. borealis. 
I examined a few of Mr. Swinhoe’s Chinese examples of 
P. borealis (P. sylvicultrix, Swinhoe) in the Indian Museum; 
and although of the same size and colour, between the two 
birds I found the following differences :— 
1. The first primary of P. borealis is very minute, and 
almost Acrocephalus-YikQ, as in P. sibilatrix; while in P. 
magnirostris it is of tolerable size and Hypolais- like, as in 
H. polyglotta and H. rama. 
2, The 2nd quill of P. borealis is equal in length to mid¬ 
way between 5th and 6th, as in P. trochilus; while in P. 
magnirostris the 2nd quill is about equal to the 9th, the 
latter bird’s wing being more rounded. 
