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Show 4 COMMODORE HOSKINS ON THE " MOORUK." [Jan. 14, its former existence in the island that he met with was the stuffed skin which, as I have already said, is in the Museum there. "Coming to later authors, Mr. G. R. Gray, who, in 1840, had proposed (List Gen. B. p. 58) the generic separation of this pigeon from others of the family under the name of Alectrcenas (which, as Agassiz subsequently pointed out, should be written Alectorcenas), in 1855 marked it as represented in the British Museum (Cat. Gen. B. p. 97) ; and so it appeared in his 'Hand-list' (ii. p. 228); but I have not been able to find that the British Museum ever possessed a specimen, and no mention is made of it in his ' List of Specimens' of Columbce of 1856. In 1868 M M . Pollen and Van Dam entered this species (Rech. Faune de Madag. p. 159) as belonging to Madagascar alone, without even giving it a place in the Mauritian list; and in 1877 Dr. Hartlaub, in his most recent work (Vog. Madag. u. s. w. p. 264), though his other statements are right enough, was misled into the error of saying that ' Fossile Reste dieser Art sam-melte Herr Henry II. Slater.' " Allied to Alectorcenas nitidissima are three species which still survive and are natives of Madagascar, the Comoros, and the Seychelles. All have been treated by Dr. Hartlaub as congeneric; and they will probably stand as A. madagascariensis (Linn.), A. sganzini (Verr.), and A. pulcherrima (Scop.). It is possible that Rodriguez once possessed another member of the group, the Columba rodericana of M . A. Milne-Edwards; but we have not received sufficient remains of that species (which is certainly extinct) to decide the point, and the older voyagers give us no help here as they do in so many other cases. I shall not trouble you with commenting on the nomenclature of any of these species. That which is the subject of m y remarks has had a sufficient number of useless synonyms applied to it; but on the whole they have all been fortunate, and there is no difficulty in determining the names they should bear, though both the generic and specific appellation of Alectorcenas nitidissima were conferred by writers who had never set eyes on a specimen. " To conclude, I may state (1) that there is no trustworthy evidence of Alectorcenas nitidissima having inhabited any other locality than Mauritius, to which it was therefore in all probability peculiar, (2) that it is now wholly extinct, and (3) that remains of only three specimens are known to have been preserved." The following extract was read from a letter addressed bv Commodore Hoskins, of H.M.S. 'Wolverine,' dated Sydney, Oct*. 9, 1878, to Capt. Evans, C.B., Hydrographer to the Admiralty :- " It is some time since you asked me to obtain for Mr. Sclater of the Zoological Society information as to the northern limit of the 'Mooruk,' and whether it is found in N e w Ireland. " I instructed Lieut. Home, commanding the « Sandfly,' to do all in his power to solve the point; and I have just heard from him at Brisbane (which he reached on his way down from the islands) that, having taken Mr. Brown, the Wesley an Missionary, and some native interpreters on board in Blanche Bay, he proceeded to visit the |