5 [Vol. xlii. 



of Heidelburg, certainly the leading authority on the 

 anatomy of birds. 



Finally, I should like to congratulate our brave French 

 allies on having started a Society of Ornithology, of which 

 M. Menegaux, our Honorary Member, has been elected 

 President, and our old friend Mr. Charles Chubb on having 

 been awarded the Imperial Service Medal for his long and 

 faithful services in the Bird Room of the British Museum. 

 He entered the service, when the collections were still at 

 Bloomsbury, in 1876, and has therefore been connected with 

 the Museum for over 44 years. 



The Eev. F. C. R. Jourdain exhibited a selection of the 

 skins obtained during the visit of the Oxford University 

 Expedition to Norway and Spitsbergen, and made some 

 remarks on the results achieved. The last paper on " The 

 Birds of Spitsbergen," published in the ' Ibis,' is that of 

 Mr. Trevor Battye ('Ibis,' 1897, pp. 574-600), in which 

 only 29 species were recorded, 22 having been observed by 

 members of the Conway expedition, while evidence was 

 given of about a dozen species recorded as breeding. The 

 present expedition identified at least 33 forms, of which no 

 fewer than 24 were found breeding, while the list of birds 

 from the whole group now extends to some 60 species. A 

 series of about 300 skins and 500 eggs was brought back, 

 and it is hoped that this will provide material for a closer 

 study of several Arctic forms. In the case of the Grey 

 Phalarope (Ph. fuUcarius) this has already resulted in the 

 separation of the Nearctic and Palsearctic forms. Some of 

 the extensions of breeding-ranges were remarkable : Larus 

 marinus and Pluvialis apricarius being met with breeding 

 on Bear Island, Erolia alpina, CJiar'adrius hiaticula, and 

 Arenaria interpres in Spitsbergen proper. A fine series of 

 specimens of the three species of Groose which breed in 

 Spitsbergen {Anser hracliyrhynclius, Branta hernicla, and 

 B. leucopsis) includes examples of all species in the flight- 

 less stage, hitherto unrepresented in any of our collections, 

 and considerable numbers of young of several species in 

 the downy stage were also obtained. A brief description 



