130 Zoological Society : — 



it was about three miles east of Heligoland. When this bird was 

 approached by the boat, it rose very easily, mounted into the air to 

 a great height — as birds do when starting for their migratorial ex- 

 cursions — and then struck out steadily in a southern direction, with- 

 out taking any notice whatever of the island. 



Although I believe the foregoing instances sufficiently prove the 

 possibility of birds being able to cross on the wing from the 

 United States of America to Great Britain, the greatest probability 

 that they do so is still shown by the proportion the number of 

 American birds obtained in Great Britain bears to that of those ob- 

 tained in the whole of Europe. Yarrell, in his • British Birds,' 1845, 

 mentions more than forty instances of that description, — Tringa ru- 

 fescens and Scolopax grisea having each been obtained six times ! 

 whereas Germany, Holland, and France together offer but very few 

 instances, some of which scarcely rest on good authority. 



Heligoland seems to form a happy centre. Here the Gulls of the 

 Arctic Sea, Larus Rossii and Sabinii, meet the Numidian Crane (Grus 

 virgo), Lanius phcenicurus, and other African birds ; whilst the United 

 States send Mimus rufus and T. lividus, Sylvicola virens, Charadrius 

 virginicus, and others, to meet deputations from the far east of Asia 

 consisting of Turdus ruficollis and T. varius, Sylvia javanica, S. cali- 

 gata, and S. Certhiola, Emberiza rustica, E.pusilla, and E. aureola, 

 Pyrrhula rosea and a great many others. 



All these birds, together with a great number of acquisitions quite 

 as valuable for the European Ornis, all captured on this island, are 

 preserved in my collection — a collection which, although scarcely 

 approaching to three hundred specimens, has, by Blasius, been pro- 

 nounced to be " the most interesting between Paris and Petersburg." 



Heligoland, January 1860. 



February 28, I860.— John Gould, Esq., F.R.S., V.P.,in the Chair. 



Note on the supposed occurrence of the Hirundo 

 bicolor of North America in England. By Alfred 

 Newton, M.A., F.Z.S., &c. 



I venture to send for exhibition a skin of the North American 

 Hirundo bicolor of Vieillot, which was formerly the property of my 

 late very good friend Mr. John Wolley, and which there can be little 

 doubt was obtained from a bird killed in this country, though Mr. 

 Wolley, with that admirable caution which distinguished him in re- 

 cording the reported occurrence ('Zoologist,' 1853, p. 3806), was 

 careful to mention that there was " a possibility of mistake " in the 

 matter. 



I think that perhaps some members of the Society will view this 

 specimen with a certain amount of interest ; but, apart from this, my 

 object in its exhibition is mainly to draw the attention of naturalists 

 to a matter which is every day becoming of greater consequence to 

 those ornithologists who chiefly occupy themselves with the Avi- 

 fauna of any one district. I refer to the occurrence within parti- 

 cular limits of strong examples of exotic species. It is not only 



