718 
Letters , Extracts , and Notes. 
has recently moved to New Zealand, where he has become 
first assistant to Mr. Thomas Cheeseman, the Curator of 
the Auckland Museum. In a letter recently received by 
Mr. W. L. ScJater, Griffin gives a good account of this 
Museum, which is well-known for its rich Maori Collections, 
supposed to be the finest in the world. The Museum¬ 
building contains five exhibition-halls, besides the usual 
offices, and an extensive library. The main hall is devoted 
to the foreign Zoological Collections, and holds a series of 
groups in large cases, called the “ African Group/'’ the 
“ Arctic Group/ - ’ and so on, shewing the characteristic 
animals of the different Regions. The series of birds is 
now being re-mounted and is receiving fresh additions. 
Mr. Griffin describes Auckland as a lovely place with a 
climate like that of Cape Town, and is evidently much 
pleased with his new post, for which we believe he is 
well fitted. He will be pleased to attend to any special 
requirements of naturalists. 
Bird-marking Experiments in England. — Mr. H. F. 
Witherbv, the Editor of f British Birds/ is inaugurating, 
in connection with his magazine, a scheme for marking birds 
in this country in a similar way to that employed at the 
German Bird-Observatory at Rossitten. It is hoped by this 
means to gain a more exact idea of the movements of 
individual birds than has ever been possible by any other 
method; and this should not only throw light upon the more 
general aspects of migration, but should tell us a great 
deal that is at present obscure with regard to particular 
points. For example, while we may know the general dis¬ 
tribution of a species in winter and summer, we do not 
know the extent of the migration of individual birds; or, 
indeed, whether in such cases as the Song-Thrush and Robin, 
certain individuals ever migrate at all. The movements 
of sea-birds are very little understood, and much might be 
learned from marking a large number. This plan might 
