Anniversary Meeting of the Zoological Club. "^l3 



since the date of the institution of our club, chiefly by the 

 exertions of its members. The past year has not been barren 

 in such acquisitions. A female specimen of a species of the 

 family of warblers, the Sylvia Tithys of Linnaeus, shot near 

 London, was exhibited at our last meeting. We are indebted to 

 Mr. Gould of the Zoological Society, for the discovery of this 

 addition to our British Fauna. The bird had been sent to 

 him as a common Redstart (Sylvia Phcenicurus), to which it 

 bears a close affinity ; and probably would have passed un- 

 noticed as a specimen of that species, more particularly in 

 consequence of its sex, in which the colours are less strongly 

 marked than in the male, had not the critical knowledge of 

 this rising naturalist detected the distinguishing characters. 

 At the same meeting, Mr. Yarrell exhibited specimens of the 

 trachea of a swan, differing materially from that of the well 

 known Cygnus ferus, more especially by entering the sternum 

 to a greater distance, and forming, at the end of it, a horizon- 

 tal instead of a vertical fold. One of these specimens belonged 

 to a bird now preserved in the collection of the Philosophical 

 Society of Cambridge, and which Mr. Yarrell had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining in a recent state. The result of this 

 examination, as well as of that of one or two other similar 

 specimens, confirmed him in the opinion that the bird differed 

 equally in external and internal characters from all the other 

 known species of the group. He expressed his intention of 

 laying before the next meeting of our parent Society a detailed 

 description *, accompanied by plates, of this new and well 

 distinguished British species. To Mr, Yarrell, also, we are 

 indebted for an accurate description and delineation of the 

 structure of the beak and its muscles, in our Crossbill, the 

 Loxia curvirostra. I cannot, in this place, omit the expression 

 of our thanks to Mr. Blackwall of Manchester, for several 

 valuable ornithological observations which he has at various 

 times communicated to the Zoological Journal. His notes on 

 the natural history of the Cuckoo, on the nidification of birds, 

 and on the habits and economy of several British species, 

 which came under his immediate inspection, are replete with 

 interest and information. 



The advantage which science derives from the publication 

 of works illustrative of the subjects of nature, has at all times 

 been acknowledged with gratitude. At no period have a 

 greater number or a more valuable assemblage appeared than 

 at the present. The splendid work of Mr. Selby on the in- 



* This description has been since read, in which the bird is characterised 

 under the name of Cygnus Bewickii. 



