^Ht! MYXOMYCEtEfc!. 77 



The spores are spherical, usually with a smooth, but frequently 

 with a ribbed or spiuy coat. They fall into two firoups as regards 

 colour: in one group the spores are dull-coloured, either brown or 

 brownish-violet, almost black ; in the other they are of a bright colour, 

 such as yellow, ochreous, red, purple, or pink. In this, as in many of 

 the lower plants, we tind colour, which, in the higher groups, is so 

 untrustworthy, furnishing one of the primary bases of classification. 

 The spores of many species, too, are remarkable for their size, which 

 is almost exactly a micro-millimeter — /.<'., -f^tli of a millimeter, the 

 unit now generally adopted by microscopists for the measurement of 

 all minute objects, nnd denoted by the Greek letter fx. It was long ago 

 proposed that they might be used as a guide in pieasuriug the size of 

 other minute objects on the same slide, and the average of some 

 species of Trichia seems to be constant enough to serve this purpose. 

 In a few genera, as Badhamia, the spores are at first collected in 

 groups. 



{To he continued.) 



THE BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIKE 



BY THOMAS MACAULAY, M.E.C.S.L., ETC. 



PART IV.—'- OUR VISITORS." 



( Conthiuid from paye Co.) 



33. —The Oyater-catclnir i H<r)ii(t(opus u.itr(ile;iu.i). These birds again, 

 though common enough, are not often driven a hundred miles 

 inland. Mr. James Harley records (through Morris) the 

 capture of two within the borders of this county in January, 

 1838. Rev. A. Matthews reports one seen at Gumley in 1881. 



34. — The Bittern ( llotuitnt.-i stelUiris). Rapidly becoming extinct, 

 this bird, immortalised by Tennyson, under the name of 

 " butter-bump "' in his poem " The Northern Farmer," is yet 

 occasionally found. The only records I have are one specimen 

 killed at Enderby in 1872 and now in the Leicester Museum, 

 and a note from my friend Mr. M. Browne to the effect that 

 " two were reported in a Birmingham paper as having been 

 killed at Lutterworth, October or November, 1881." 



35.— The "White Stork (Cicoiiid alba). When the fens were fens, this 

 bird was not an unfrequeut visitor, but that a specimen should 

 be found straying on the outskirts of the town of Leicester, as 

 late as 1873 is somewhat remarkable. The bird was shot at 

 West Leigh on March (ith in the above year, and is now in the 

 Leicester Museum. 



36.— The Glossy Ibis i ll>ix fitlrinelhis). The Bickley collection in 

 the Leicester Museuni includes a specimen of this bird. I 

 have Ijeen recently informed by the donor's brother, who 

 assisted very materially in forming the collection, tliat it was 

 killed on the border of the county and within it. 



37. — The Curlew (A'h//((';(/h.-; (n7/(/(/^/;. Not an uncommon visitor in 

 the winter. It has been noticed both by myself and others on 

 rnauv occasions. 



