| OCR Text |
Show 176 MESSRS. SCLATER AND SALVIN ON BIRDS [Mar. 27, Peruana.' That the series of birds given by Tschudi as met with within the limits of Peru is not very complete, is sufficiently manifest from the fact that the whole number of species enumerated by him is only 265 ; and herein are included a considerable number of purely Andean species, besides species peculiar to the western coast-fauna which are not met with in the eastern wood-region. Now Mr. Bartlett's present collection already gives us materials for determining upwards of 250 different species ; and the probability is, the whole avifauna of this rich region does not contain less than from 600 to 700 species. Several other zoological travellers have likewise made extensive collections of bird-skins in various parts of the same district into which Mr. Bartlett has recently penetrated ; but, unfortunately, no complete account of the results of their labours has ever been given to the public. The specimens obtained by Professor Poeppig in the province of Maynas remain, we believe, still unworked at in the Leipsic Museum. About the year 1846 the French travellers, M M . Castelnau and Deville, descended the river Ucayali during their journey from Lima to Para. A considerable series of birds was collected on this occasion by the late M . Deville at Sarayacu and at other localities in Eastern Peru visited by the expedition, but, probably owing to the latter naturalist's untimely death after his return to Paris, it was never perfectly worked out. The " Partie Ornitho-logique " of the Voyage of M . Castelnau, published by M . Des Murs in 1855, contains only notices of some of the principal species, and is in fact, as is stated by the author in his preface, mainly a compilation of papers published by M . Deville, Prince Charles Bonaparte, and Mr. Sclater on the same subject. In 1854, or thereabouts, Mr. Hawxwell, who has for many years been a resident trader at various stations on the Upper Amazons, transmitted to Mr. Gould a very fine and extensive collection of the birds of this district. A portion of these were exhibited by Mr. Gould to this Society at one of their Meetings in 1855*, and some of the new species contained in it were described by Mr. Gould in our ' Proceedings'f. It is much to be regretted that in this case, again, the collection was dispersed without any complete account being given of it. Mr. Hawxwell's specimens were obtained partly on the Ucayali, and partly at Chamicurros, an Indian village situated on a small tributary of the Huallaga. In 1857 Mr. Sclater published in our 'Proceedings'^ a list of a small collection of birds (embracing seventy-nine species) transmitted by our well-known Amazonian traveller, Mr. H. W . Bates, from Ega. Part of these were from Ega itself, but others had been obtained for Mr. Bates by an assistant collector on the Rio Javarri. Amongst them were a considerable number of species, which we recognize again in the present collection. Other species obtained by Mr. Bartlett * See P. Z. S. 1855, p. 77. f Descriptions of eight new species of hirds from South America (P. Z. S. 1855, p. 67). J P. Z. S. 1857, p. 261. |
