Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornithology of Heligoland. 161 



Gaetke was, of course, delighted to have an opportunity of 

 chatting with Mr. Sharpe and myself about his favourite birds, 

 and of telling the story of the capture of each. For some un- 

 accountable reason the German ornithologists seem to have 

 neglected Heligoland ; and Englishmen rarely visit the island. 

 Mr. Gaetke takes a justifiable pride in the artistic way in which 

 his birds are mounted — all the work of his own hands ; 

 but he nevertheless allowed us to take the rarer birds out of 

 the cases to measure and describe them, though he some- 

 times winced when we ruffled the feathers in the process, 

 and chaffed us good naturedly as a couple of ornithological 

 detectives. 



The following information may be worth recording in the 

 pages of ' The Ibis ' : — 



The bird mentioned in Mr. Cordeaux's paper in ' The Ibis ' 

 for 1875 (p. 179, footnote) as a Hypolais with a light band 

 across the wing, is Phylloscojms nitidus (Blyth). No Hypo- 

 lais nor Acrocephalus has a bar across the wing. The species 

 of Phylloscopi with a large and Hypolais-\ike bill, and one 

 or two bars across the wing, form a well-marked group or 

 subgenus, to which Blasius gave the name of Acanthopneuste. 

 Of the thirteen species included in this group, the absence 

 of a mesial line upon the crown and the peculiarities of the 

 wing-formula restrict the choice to two — P. nitidus and P. 

 viridanus. The bright green, approaching verdigris-green, 

 of the upper parts, and the delicate lemon-yellow of the un- 

 derparts, decide the point in favour of the former species. 

 We had Indian skins of both species with us for comparison ; 

 and Gaetke, Sharpe, and I all agreed that no doubt whatever 

 remains on the question. 



Phylloscopus borealis (Bias.), Ibis, 1875, p. 179, errone- 

 ously called Phyllopneuste javanica (Horsf.), Ibis, 1862, p. 66, 

 is a well-marked and perfectly undoubted specimen. This 

 species has been found recently by Collett in the breeding- 

 season in the Porsanger fjord, slightly to the east of the North 

 Cape"^, and ought, one would think, to occur much more fre- 

 quently upon Heligoland than it does. 



Mr. Gaetke^s work will contain particulars of about five-and- 

 * See P. Z. S. Feb. 6, 1877. 



