the Colonial and Indian Exhibition . 
469 
plates of Gould's f Birds of Asia' are displayed on the walls. 
There are some cases of Assam birds, from Shillong; the 
Straits Settlements send some cases of mounted birds, and a 
number of skins arranged on the wall of one of the galleries, 
as well as some edible birds' nests—the latter being also a 
feature in the North Borneo exhibit. The Official Catalogue 
is particularly unsatisfactory as regards the exhibitions in 
the galleries, and it can only be surmised that two cases con¬ 
taining Argus Pheasants and other fine birds were contri¬ 
buted by Mr. Pryer; they have been mounted by Mr. E. 
Gerrard, jr. From Hong-Kong nothing could reasonably 
be expected. In the same gallery are specimens of the Bing- 
necked Pheasant, descendants of birds introduced into the 
Island of St. Helena in 1513, by some Portuguese exiled from 
Goa, which have varied very slightly from the plumage of 
their ancestors after the lapse of nearly four centuries. 
There is also a specimen, with its egg, of that remarkable 
little Plover, JEgialitis s and ce-Helena , the (C Wire-bird " of 
that island, to which it appears to be confined, its represen¬ 
tative on the African continent being jE. varia. A paper 
by Mr. J. E. Harting, with figures of these two species, 
will be found in f The Ibis' for 1873, pp. 260-269. The 
Mauritius section, in the same gallery, contains some 
natural-history specimens from the Seychelles, sent by Mr. 
H. Whatley Estridge, respecting which a note in the Official 
Catalogue says, a We notice also a small hawk, of which even 
the British Museum cannot boast a representative." The 
bird in question appears to be Tinnunculus gracilis; but, as a 
matter of fact, the British Museum has possessed two examples 
of it for some years past, one of them presented by Mr. E. 
Newton, C.M.G. Some bones of the Dodo are also exhibited. 
Passing to Africa, the Cape Colony section contains a 
mounted group of Gannets, Penguins, and Cormorants, with 
their nests and eggs, from Ichaboe—virtually an advertise¬ 
ment of the guano found on that island. On the wall oppo¬ 
site is a collection of well-made skins, labelled with dates and 
localities, exhibited by Mr. W. Ayres, probably a son of our 
valued correspondent Mr. Thomas Ayres of Transvaal. In the 
ser. v.— vol, iv. 2l 
