693 
Letters, Extracts, Notices, fyc. 
On returning to the Bahr-Ghazal in June last, I shot 
another specimen of this bird near the mouth of the river. 
On this occasion there seemed to be large numbers of them 
about, and other specimens were obtained. The birds were 
generally seen standing on the banks, sometimes on dry land 
and sometimes in shallow pools or marshes. When dis¬ 
turbed their flight was slow and flapping. 
Yours &c., 
Wm. B. Drury, Lieut. B.N. 
Junior Naval and Military Club, 
Aug. 4th, 1900. 
Sirs, —Will you allow me to correct a remark made by 
Dr. Sharpe in his paper on the “Birds of the New 7 Hebrides” ? 
He states [supra, p. 318) that the majority of Layard's types 
are in the British Museum, whereas, with very few, if any, 
exceptions, these types are in the Liverpool Museum. 
Mr. Layard, after 1875, consigned all his collections to me, 
along with his MS. notes. He was in the habit of naming, 
but not always describing forms considered to be certainly 
new, while others w 7 ere left to me to describe if I should 
think proper. The arrangement between us was that I 
should keep what specimens I wished, paying for them the 
same price as those obtained for specimens that were sold. 
After selecting my own series, I always made the first offer 
to the British Museum and the next to Mr. Seebohm, except 
in the case of Pigeons, of which Mr. Salvin had the second 
pick. Of course I reserved all the types for my own col¬ 
lection, and they are now all at Liverpool. 
The specimens in the British Museum may claim in many 
cases to be co-types,” but not more. Of Aplonis rufi - 
pennis , only the type specimen ever came into my hands. 
Mr. Seebohm purchased, through me, the w r hole collection 
wdnch Mr. Layard had reserved for himself. In this, if I 
remember rightly, were some of the first collection of 1875, 
w 7 hich may probably have been types. 
Yours &c.j 
H. B. Tristram, 
Durham, 6th August, 1900. 
