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On the Avifauna of New Caledonia. 
XXX .—Notes on the Avifauna of New Caledonia . By 
Edgar L. Layard, C.M.G., F.Z.S., &c., H.B.M. Consul, 
and E. Leopold C. La yard, Vice-Consul, at Noumea. 
We hope the readers of f The Ibis' will not think us pre¬ 
sumptuous if, after a residence of only six months in New 
Caledonia, where even our excursions have been confined to 
the neighbourhood of Noumea, we make so bold as to write 
some “Notes on the Avifauna” of the island. 
We should premise that we believe ourselves to be in pos¬ 
session of all the literature extant on the ornithology of the 
island and the C{ Loyalty Group,” which we shall always 
include in our “ Notes.” We have the articles in the f Revue 
Zoologique/ 1860, by MM. Verreaux and Des Murs. While 
in Sydney for his health, Mr. E. L. Layard was fortunate 
enough to find in the extensive and valuable library of that well- 
known naturalist Dr. George Bennett (the contents of which 
were most liberally placed at his disposal by his old and valued 
friend) an excellent paper by M. Henri Jouan, entitled 
“ Notes sur la Faune Ornithologique de la NouvelleCaledonie,” 
in the f Memoires de la Societe Imperiale des Sciences Na- 
turelles de Cherbourg/ tome ix., p. 197 (1863). From this he 
copied descriptions of all the named species, a few others being 
alluded to without any designation; it is therefore impossible 
to say to what they refer. Then we have Brenchleys's * Cruise 
of the “ Cura 5 oa,” ' G. R. Gray's f Birds of the Tropical Is¬ 
lands/ and Finsch and Hartlaub's f Ornithology of Fiji, Tonga, 
and Samoa.' A small Colonial Government Library here has 
a fine series of the travels and voyages of all the old French 
navigators; and Mr. F. W. Hutton, of the Otago Museum 
in New Zealand, has been kind enough to copy out for us 
descriptions of New-Caledonian birds from works accessible 
to him, such as Forster's f Voyage' &c. We thus think we 
are in a position to speak with some show of authority on the 
subject. 
Our catalogue of species known in or said to inhabit New 
Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands, amounts to just 100. 
MM. Verreaux and Des Murs catalogued (1860) 76 species ; 
