1839,] Linnean Society. 21 



March 19. 

 Edward Forster, Esq., V. P., in the Chair. 



Robert John Ashton, Esq., Bromptoni Patrick Leigh Strachan, 

 Esq., of the Civil Service, Sierra Leone; and Alfred White, Esq., 

 IsHngton, were elected Fellows of the Society. 



Read, " A Notice of the Birds of Iceland, accompanied by speci- 

 mens." By George Townshend Fox, Esq., F.L.S. 



It is perhaps not generally known that the Durham University 

 has estabhshed a Museum as one of the necessary appendages of an 

 academical institution ; the subcurator of which, Mr. Wm. Proctor, 

 requested and obtained permission to go out to Iceland in the summer 

 of 1837 to procure a collection of the birds of that island. Three 

 months were passed on the most northern part of Iceland, this local- 

 ity being chosen by Mr. Proctor as one least visited by naturalists, 

 and therefore the most likely to repay his labours by the number or 

 rarity of the specimens to be obtained. Skins of fifty-two species of 

 birds were brought home, besides skins of six Rein Deer, three spe- 

 cies of Seals, two large Fishes (Anun-hicas), and a Porpoise. 



Frederick Faber in his Ornithology of Iceland, published at Copen- 

 hagen in 1822, enumerates eighty-four species of birds; of which 

 about twenty are land birds, and sixty water birds. Faber adopted the 

 nomenclature of Linnaeus, but an examination of the skins brought 

 home by Mr. Proctor has led to the belief that several of Faber's 

 birds are not identical with the Linnean species. The Iceland 

 Falcon is considered by Mr. Hancock* as distinct from the whiter 

 falcon of Greenland. The Iceland Grouse is correctly considered 

 by Faber as peculiar to that island. The Bridled Guillemot, Uria 

 lacrymans, Lapyl., is for various reasons believed to be a species 

 distinct from the Common Guillemot, Uria Troile, Lath. Clangula 

 Barrovii w^as found breeding on the ground in a nest formed of 

 its own down, and placed among aquatic plants a little above high- 

 water mark. Some rare eggs were also obtained, namely, those of 

 the Iceland Falcon, Little Auk, Bridled Guillemot, and Sclavonian 

 Grebe. 



Read also a paper, " On the Structure and Development of 

 the Reproductive organs of Pilularia globulifera." In a letter to 



* See Mr. Hancock's paper on this subject in the * Annals of Natural 

 History,' voh ii. p. 241. 



