Letters, Extracts, Notices, fyc. 571 
identical with that seen in the Flamingo. ‘ The varied 
affinities of this large Carinate bird appear to lie midway 
between the Ducks and Geese on the one side, and the 
Herons and Flamingos on the other. It may be placed in a 
new family; but its characters are in all respects such as 
might have occurred in an existing bird. There is no 
indication of affinity to Archceopteryx, or that the bird 
diverged in any way from modern types/ ” 
Lecture on Albatrosses. —At the Museum, Brassey Institute, 
on April 10th, Mr. Thomas Parkin, M.A., M.B.O.U., gave a 
lecture to the members of the Hastings and St. Leonardos 
Natural History Society on the Albatrosses. A special 
feature of the lecture was the exhibition of no fewer than 
fourteen out of the seventeen forms that are admitted to 
specific rank by ornithologists. This splendid exhibition was 
rendered possible by the kindness of the Hon. Walter Roth¬ 
schild, M.P., of Tring, Herts, and also by the kind services 
of Dr. Ernst Hartert, the accomplished Director of the 
Museum there. Mr. Parkin further produced examples of 
the eggs of several of the species, some from his own cabinets, 
and others from the choice collections of Mr. Rothschild. 
New Work on the Eggs of Australian Birds .—The f Cata¬ 
logue of Nests and Eggs of the Birds of Australia/ by 
Mr. Alfred J. North, Ornithologist to the Australian Museum, 
which was published by the Trustees of the Australian 
Museum in 1889 as No. xii. of their series of Catalogues, is 
now out of print, and the Trustees have decided to issue a 
new work in an enlarged form by the same author. There 
will be representations of about 600 eggs on 30 full-sized 
plates, and arrangements are being made to have them hand- 
coloured for those who desire it. Some of the nests and 
breeding-haunts of the birds will also be shown on full- 
sized plates, but the greater number will be interspersed 
among the text, where also many the birds themselves 
will be figured. The photographs, from which the plates 
representing the nests are made, have mostly been taken by 
