102 Letters, Announcements, ^'C. 



the much-vexed question of Pellorneum tickelli, we have 

 given our unbiased and independent opinion, founded on our 

 own personal comparison, viz. that ''it is impossible" to 

 decide the case from the descriptions, but that the size of the 

 specimens seems to favour Mr. Hume^s views. After this, 

 it is a little hard that Mr. Hume should complain of his 

 referees not having delivered judgment. 



25. Taczanoivski on the Birds of Poland. 



[Liste des Vertebres de Pologne, par L. Taczanowski. Biill. Soc. Zool. 

 de France, 1877, p. 121.] 



M. Taczanowski enumerates 304 species of birds in his 

 list, and gives notes on the times and seasons of their occur- 

 rence. In his preliminary remarks is given an account of 

 the previous literature on the subject. 



IX. — Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



We have received the following letters, addressed to the 

 Editors of ' The Ibis : '— 



Heligoland, September 28th, 1878. 



Sirs, — It gives me much pleasure to inform you that the 

 occurrence here of Larus affinis has very soon been followed 

 by another still more interesting addition to the ornis of Heli- 

 goland, in the capture of a fine specimen of a Phylloscopus (shot 

 here on the 25th inst. by my eldest son) greatly resembling 

 P. fuscatus, but of a coloration tending more to greyish than 

 huffish brown, the dark colour of the upper parts extending 

 all round the fore part of the breast, or craw, as we describe 

 it in German ornithological phraseology. 



With the aid of Mr. Seebohm^s paper on the Phylloscopi 

 (Ibis, 1877, p. 66), I have been enabled to identify the above 

 bird, P. viridanus being the only one of his eight Acan- 

 thopneustcB without the mesial line that it could be referred 

 to, although the bill of my specimen is not to be called 

 " large," being, in fact, not larger than that of P. trochilus. 

 In all other measurements, however, in the colour of the upper 



