31 



15. * Black Tern, Sterna nigra, Linu. Mr. Bali has seen this 

 bird in the month of July, for some years successively, at Roxborough, 

 near Middleton, co. Cork. 



I n addition to tliese I may mention the 



1 6.* Blnckcap tVarbler, Curruca atricapilla, Bechst., which, though 

 stated in Rutty's Dublin to be freąuent in thatcounty, admits of some 

 doiibt, as more than one species is cominonly called by the name of 

 Blackcap in Ireland. On the Igt March, 1834, I saw, in the shop of 

 Mr. Galbraith, Bird Preserver, Belfast, a fresh specimen of an adult 

 malė Blackcap, vvhich had been killed (probably the day before) in the 

 garden at Dovvn and Connor House, co. of Down. 



Other individuals of tlie specie.s niarked thus * have been recorded 

 in the MS. Catalogue of the late J. Templeton, Esq,— W. T. 



Mr. Thompson also stated that specimens of the true Lestrispara- 

 siticus, Temm., have repeatediy occurred in the Bays of Dublin and 

 Belfast. He added, that during the great storm which took place on 

 the 31st August, 1833, a great many specimens of the Octopus octo- 

 podia (vvhich had not before been recorded as occurring on the shores 

 of Ireland) vvere throvvn ashore in Belfast Bay. 



Mr. Owen read a Paper " On the Structure of the Heart of the 

 Perennibranchiate Amphibia, or Reptiles douteux of Cuvier." 



He briefly noticed the progressive discoveries relating to the heart 

 of Reptiles vvhich have been made since the time of Linnaeus, and 

 vvhich have successivelyrendered inapplicable to the Saurians, Cheloni- 

 ans, and Ophidians, the phrase " Cor uniloculare, uniauritum", applied 

 to the vvhole of the Reptilia in the ' Systema Na tune'. He alluded to 

 the researches of Dr. Davy and M. Martin St. Ange on the structure 

 of the heart in the Caducibrdncinate Amphibia, from vvhich it appeared 

 that tvvo auricles vvere appended to the ventricle in those Reptiles, as 

 vvell as in the higher orders above mentioned. He then proceeded to 

 give the results of an examination of the hearts of specimens of Am- 

 phiuma, Cuv., Menopoma, Harlan, Proteus, Schreib., and Siren, Linn. 

 He selected the heart of the Siren lacertina as the subject of detailed 

 description, considering that the genus Siren, in combining with per- 

 sistent external branchis a limitednumber of extremities, exhibits the 

 simplest form of the Amphihious Reptile. 



The heart in this species consists of three distinct cavities, as in the 

 higher Reptilia, viz. of two auricles and one ventricle. The auricles 

 appeartoform externally one large and remarkably fimbriated cavity, 

 situated behind, and advancing forvvards, on both sides of the ventricle 

 and bulbus arteriosus. The venous blood is poured into a large mem- 

 branous sinus by one posterior and two anterior ven<s cavee prior 

 to passing into the auricle. The conjoined trunk of the pulmonary 

 veins appears also to enter this sinus, but it passes through vvithout 

 communicating with that cavity, and terminates in a small separate 

 auricle, vvhich opens into the ventricle by an orifice distinct from, but 

 close to, the orifice of the right auricle. In the ventricle a rudimen- 

 tary septum vvas noticed as affording an indication of atype of forma- 



