130 Zoological Society :— 
it was about three miles east of Heligoland. When this bird was 
approached by the boat, it rose very easily, mounted into the air to 
a great height—as birds do when starting for their migratorial ex- 
eursions—and then struck out steadily in a southern direction, with- 
out taking any notice whatever of the island. 
Although I believe the foregoing instances sufficiently prove the 
possibility of birds being able to cross on the wing from the 
United States of America to Great Britain, the greatest probability 
that they do so is still shown by the proportion the number of 
American birds obtained in Great Britain bears to that of those ob- 
tained in the whole of Europe. Yarrell, in his ‘ British Birds,’ 1845, 
mentions more than forty instances of that description,—Tringa ru- 
Jescens and Scolopax grisea having each been obtained six times! 
whereas Germany, Holland, and France together offer but very few 
instances, some of which scarcely rest on good authority. 
Heligoland seems to forma happy centre. Here the Gulls of the 
Arctic Sea, Larus Rossii and Sabinii, meet the Numidian Crane (Grus 
virgo), Lanius phenicurus, and other African birds ; whilst the United 
States send Mimus rufus and T. lividus, Sylvicola virens, Charadrius 
virginicus, and others, to meet deputations from the far east of Asia 
consisting of Turdus ruficollis and T. varius, Sylvia javanica, S. cali- 
gata, and 8. Certhiola, Emberiza rustica, E. pusilla, and FE. aureola, 
Pyrrhula rosea and a great many others. 
All these birds, together with a great number of acquisitions quite 
as valuable for the European Ornis, all captured on this island, are 
preserved in my collection—a collection which, although scarcely 
approaching to three hundred specimens, has, by Blasius, been pro- 
nounced to be “the most interesting between Paris and Petersburg.” 
Heligoland, January 1860. 
February 28, 1860.—John Gould, Esq., F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. 
NoTE ON THE SUPPOSED OCCURRENCE OF THE HiIRUNDO 
BICOLOR OF NortTH AMERICA IN ENGLAND. By ALFRED 
Newron, M.A., F.Z.S., &e. 
I venture to send for exhibition a skin of the North American 
Hirundo bicolor of Vieillot, which was formerly the property of my 
late very good friend Mr. John Wolley, and which there can be little 
doubt was obtained from a bird killed in this country, though Mr. 
Wolley, with that admirable caution which distinguished him in re- 
cording the reported occurrence (‘ Zoologist,’ 1853, p. 3806), was 
careful to mention that there was “‘a possibility of mistake” in the 
matter. 
I think that perhaps some members of the Society will view this 
specimen with a certain amount of interest ; but, apart from this, my 
object in its exhibition is mainly to draw the attention of naturalists 
to a matter which is every day becoming of greater consequence to 
those ornithologists who chiefly occupy themselves with the Avi- 
fauna of any one district. I refer to the occurrence within parti- 
cular limits of strong examples of exotic species. It is not only 
