


386 Letters, Announcements, 8c. 
In the same paper, page 82, I find named a Ptilinopus 
marginalis, Briigg., ex Nova Guinea et Salwatty, and a P. 
senex, ex Jobi, which I have already discriminated and re- 
spectively named P. trigeminus and P. geminus in another 
paper of mine (Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vu. pp. 786, 787). 
I take this opportunity to point out that Mr. Severtzoff, 
in ‘Stray Feathers,’ vol. i. p. 480, mentions a Picus lepto- 
rhynchus (previously described in ‘The Ibis,’ 1875, p. 487); 
to it he refers a var. leucoptera, which Mr. Severtzoff iden- 
tifies with my Picus leucopterus (Atti R. Ac. Sc. Tor. vi. 
(1871) p. 129). I cannot make out how a species already 
described can be considered as a variety of one described at 
a later period ; it would have been only fair to acknowledge 
a Picus leucopterus with a var. leptorhynchus.. 
I remain, dear Sir, 
Yours &c., 
T. SaLvaporti. 
Mr. Layard’s last letters from Fiji give us an account of 
his own and his son’s doings up to the middle of May last. 
_ He was then on the point of leaving for New Caledonia, to 
which island he has recently been appointed H.M. Consul. 
As soon as he is settled in his new home his son purposes 
visiting New Hebrides and the adjoiming islands; and Mr. 
Layard promises that we shall soon hear more of both of 
them from their new field of operations. As a last contri- 
bution to the ornithology of Fiji, Mr. Layard sends us a 
paper which, received at the last moment, we regret to be 
obliged to defer publishing till our next number. 

