82 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



denominated this animal Goodsirea, after the distinguished 

 anatomist of that name. 



Dr Wright placed on the table specimens of the Gromia 

 oviformis of Dujardin, a gigantic Rhizopod, which he had 

 just discovered in his tanks, and which were displaying the 

 long and intricate branching of their pseudopodia extended 

 along the glass. 



III. Notice of some Birds observed in the Island of Heligoland, in a 

 Letter from W. H. Gdtlce, Esq. Communicated by Professor Balfour. 

 (Specimens were exhibited.) 



We give the following extract from this communication : — - 



" I have ventured upon sending a few birds obtained on this island 

 (Heligoland), which probably may prove acceptable to your College Mu- 

 seum. They are a female of a species labelled in the College Museum, 

 if I recollect right, Sylvia Tytleri, obtained somewhere in India ; it is 

 the Muscicapa parva of continental ornithologists, a bird visiting this 

 island almost every autumn, and very early in spring. The specimen 

 in the College Museum is an old male bird, — the one I send an old female. 

 To my great regret, I have not been able to obtain a more perfect 

 sample of this pretty little flycatcher." [The specific term of Rubecola 

 Tytleri was given to the bird referred to above by the late Professor 

 Jameson, when he exhibited it at a meeting of the Wernerian Natural 

 History Society in April 1835. He considered that in the form of the 

 bill it presented as it were a link between the genera Rubecola and 

 Phosnicura. The bird was sent to the University Museum by Lieutenant 

 Tytler from the Himalayan Mountains. It is also a bird of eastern 

 Europe, and is very rarely seen in collections. The sexes are described 

 by Gould in his " Birds of Europe" as being similar in colour. This 

 specimen resembles that figured by Gould as a young male.] " The rest 

 of the birds contained in the box belong to Sylvia c&rulicula of Pallas 

 (i. p. 480). I have furnished a sufficient number to exemplify all changes 

 of plumage occasioned by age, season, and sex. This form of the blue- 

 throated warbler frequents Heligoland rather abundantly every autumn \ 

 in spring its visits depend much on the weather ; a warm and wet May 

 brings great numbers of the finest adult birds, whereas with dry cold 

 weather only some solitary individuals make their appearance, — unfor- 

 tunately the month of May is generally cold and dry in this island. 

 The common blue-throated warbler, with the white spot in the blue (Yar- 

 rell, i. p. 24), is here a very rare bird, scarcely one specimen turning up 

 in every five years, in spite of its being quite a common species on the 

 adjacent coast of North Germany." [It is apparently the Phoenicura 

 suecica of British naturalists with the white spot, which is believed to 

 become red with age, as in some of the specimens exhibited ; and is a 



