Gw T tT , itfamata was not «“ <=% tie same as
™ m l ^ V a!7 0Ptera’ butwWein would puzzle the clearest heads, and Glog‘ieer hdimistsienlcft isoenv elraayl
years afterwards, though retaining the name he had before
S , — tbe oId -» ‘ion of the specific identity of
tTneermn wwilml mr dduae rti me bre* s?he w“n.**■ Tbe di£fere”“ bat™en
dentlv WhlCl1 th° p,'<!SOnt form can be eonfiyalff/
a-1doz en, bI u,t in“” so m0Ce0 Uo1fT ethd e“m sBmraitlal infl o“ck“s» wnuetr e‘ n0 otaibcoedut
so that considerably more than that number of specimens
has been obtained* The earliest on record is that o fa
female shot at Grenville near Belfast, January 11th 1802
as recorded by Templeton in a . -rW tn’
(Trans. Linn Soc. Pvii p 809) Th DaW8°n Tu™er
fs ee. ms jtToi have ppeernisshneedd , ' bbuutt fa cc oll' ourTebd e/dPrawecinimg eon f |i't< w| 8as
foitunately preserved, and helped Thompson (B. Irel. i. p.
served or c a r n t w T ? " “ d M«*™*» «•>»« bei.g oh-
S ^ h T S S H H S B B *he “ 7 be noted:—(1)
‘British Zoology’ (i S B of P en n .n f,
mentioned in the tert he hed h i ? ’ 9 | S M I 1 tbe Irisb aP«*»e»
in Scotland, bn. t o H H 9 H r f tb 6 ‘ ird laving H „ „ H
®ward wriring in 1 8 M X r p T 6 3 « d T T i . ,0r 40 n”4iM i <3> 1
m tj W before a large L t a p p e a l at bS • '«“f h7 “‘“ “ V “ 4" *b°»‘
that, some time prior to 1839 Mr S r ’ ^ informed the Author
near that tow, t t H W W M »( towieh had eh.t en. appaw.tly
•f Crossbills 9 | R M H R R ” f l 643> b« B »<*« « 1 of i i
years before in the Isle of Wight • / o, ) ' a61ng 1)6611 obtained about six
observer as his more distinguished brother, sM e d ^ “ » | B h | B l l m iMMH mm f BHK f£X T u i~ T
h e rb ,'in M j B 1 Mietleo” t” u « J
of H pnbiished i ‘i « r n;5 87 “ ” 4nb“4i»“ , 46 ‘ Letter.
Wood, Surrey, and then 1 — “ 166‘ 6 “ f bird shot in Dnsted
Mr: Steriand says that f„„r H "W l e J ' ' ' bb6?.‘ <»>
the spring of 1849; and (10) Mr Ph7?a .dw™stowe, m Nottinghamshire, in
• t Taunton, 1 M f « » d e d (Zool. M ’one
hitherto been erroneously given by vario eir6ral of these particulars having
» f a r as it goes, is b O U v ^ T e i | g H H | |
288) to its determination. Mr. Rodd in 1848 mentioned
(Zool. p. 142) that one bad been killed a few years before
at Larrigan in Cornwall, and the specimen, which is still
in his collection, he has since referred to the present form.
In the autumn of 1845 a considerable number appeared
in Cumberland, and a hen now in Mr. Hancock’s collection
was shot out of a flock of about fifteen near Brampton in
that county, while at least nine more were obtained in the
neighbourhood either at the same time or in the following
year (Zool. pp. 1551, 1638). Of these last, two were lent
for the use of this work by Capt. Johnson of Walton House.
In May 1846, two or three were killed from a flock at Drink-
stone, near Bury St. Edmund’s in Suffolk* (Zool. pp. 1498,
2419), one of which is in Mr. Gurney’s possession and a
second, received at the time by Heysham, passed from him
with one of the Cumberland specimens to Doubleday and
thence to Mr. Stevenson’s possession (Zool. s.s. p. 3778,
note). Somewhere about the same time, it is believed,
Doubleday shot a young bird in his own garden at Epping.
Mr. Blake Knox has more recently recorded (Zool. s.s. p.
1376) a specimen obtained by him in Ireland in 1868.
All these examples, so far as the Editor can judge, may
be safely assigned to L. bifasciata.
This bird has at times occurred in considerable numbers
in various parts of Europe whither it has strayed from
its home in the northern and eastern parts of the Russian
dominions. In 1792, one is said to have been taken at
Stockholm, and this is perhaps the first known instance
of its appearance in Europe ; hut, in 1815, Meisner and
Schinz noticed in the Museum at Bern a specimen, said
to have been taken in Switzerland, which was probably of
this species. In 1824 the younger Naumann figured, as a
variety of Loxia curvirostra, an immature example of the
present bird (obtained presumably in Germany) being one
of the only two he said he had ever seen. In the summer
* From the fact of two of the specimens having been sent to a birdstuffer at
Thetford, the neighbourhood of that town was inferred to have been the locality
where they were obtained. The Editor well remembers them in his hands.