754 Extracts from the Minute-Book of the Linnean Society. 



Edward Smith, (the President of the Society,) the 

 Meeting was adjourned to Tuesday the first of April. 



Jpril 15. Read a letter, addressed to the Secretary, from 

 Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, 

 F.M.L.S., and dated on board the Delaware, near 

 Gibraltar, March 20th, 1828, containing some curious 

 facts relative to the migratory habits of certain species 

 of Hirundo and Sylvia. The following are extracts : 

 " In closing my letter I happen to think that the fol- 

 lowing fact may be thought interesting to some of 

 your ornithological gentlemen. A few days ago, being 

 500 miles from the coasts of Portugal, 400 from those 

 of Africa, &c., we were agreeably surprised by the 

 appearance of a few Swallows {Uirundo urbica and 

 rustica). This, however extraordinary, might have 

 been explained by an easterly gale, which might have 

 cut off the swallows migrating from the main to Ma- 

 deira, only 200 miles distant from us ; but what was 

 my surprise, in observing several small warblers hop- 

 ping about the deck and riggings. These poor little 

 strangers, exhausted as they were, were soon caught 

 and brought to me. The following is a list of the 

 species: — 1. Sylvia Tiochilus. 2. Sylvia ErithacuSy 

 Lath. {Tithys, Temm.). 3. Sylvia suecica, or rather a 

 similar species which I have already received from 

 Egypt and Barbary. 4. A species new to Europe, 

 and perhaps even a non-descript, having the plumage 

 of an Anthus, and which I think belongs (as Sylvia 

 Cisticola and others) to the hitherto African genus 

 Malurus. This, however, must rest undecided, my 



specimen 



V S, 



