THE GOLDFINCH. i 133 



The reason why the goldfinch is a favourite in sacred art is, of 

 course, because of its crimson " face," as associated with lej^ends of 

 the Crucifixion. It only remains for me to say how strongly I feel 

 that Members should support the protection which the Act of 

 1880, with its penalty of £1 per goldfinch, endeavours to preserve this 

 fast decreasing species. Probably upwards of a hundred goldfinches, 

 on a rough computation of my own, were netted during last autumn 

 in the neighbourhood of Oxford, although our bird-catchers complain 

 of the unusual scarcity of this species. 



I am happy to say that such has not been the case in Mr. Apliu's 

 neighbourhood. It is certainly much to be regretted that the close 

 season for this charming bird does not extend until the middle or end 

 of October. The great mortality among grey-pates netted in August 

 is one of the chief reasons for the fact that the demand for examples 

 so much exceeds the supply. The bird upon the table before you is a 

 female hybrid between the male goldfinch and female bullfinch. It 

 was reared in confinement, on the outskirts of Oxford, during 1881.* 



THE MYXOMYCETES, 



BY W. B. GRO\'E, B.A., 

 Hon. Sec. Birmingham Natural History ahd Microscopical Society. 



(Continued from paye 100.) 



AFFINITIES OF THE MYXOMYCETES. 



We are now prepared to consider what the affinities of the Myxo- 

 mycetes are, and it becomes at once apparent that the question, so far 

 from being capable of settlement off-hand, as some would treat it, is 

 really very complex ; for the analogies which we can perceive between 

 these organisms and other members of the animal and vegetable 

 world are very numerous and far-reaching. It becomes a question, 

 then, which analogies indicate affinity, and which are merely those 

 apparently accidental resemblances which occur throughout e\ery 

 department of Nature. 



The sporangia bear a considerable likeness to those of some Gas- 

 tromycetous Fungi, especially in the fact that the interior, when 

 mature, is filled with a dusty mass of threads and spores, but as already 

 mentioned the origin of the spores is quite different in the two cases. 

 The sporangia resemble also more remotely the capsules of Mosses 

 and Hepaticae, while the spiral threads which are mixed with the 

 spores of Trichia remind us of the elaters of the Jungermaunieas ; but 

 from these they differ in the fact that the elaters are cells, with a 

 separable spiral coiled within, while the Trichia threads, even if it be 



[ * Further data on the eoldtinch, addressed to Hugh A.Macpherson, Esq., B.A., 

 Oriel College, Oxford, would be thankfully received.— Eds., "Midland Naturalist."! 



