Miscellaneous, 473 



gamekeeper ; also Cinclus aquations (Water Ouzel), near the same 

 place ; a hybrid between the pheasant and turkey, figured by Edwards 

 from one shot (out of four or five) at Hanford by the late H. Sey- 

 mer, Esq., F.L.S. ; Anthus rupestris (Rocklark), common at Char- 

 mouth and Portland ; Least Willow-wren, Isle of Purbeck, the late 

 Rev. J. M. Colston ; Turdus ? (Pastor ?) roseus, shot in Portland, 

 1831 or 1832, by the Rev. G. Port, now in Stalbridge Museum 

 (Mr. Hoddinott) ; Emberiza nivalis, shot near Turnwood prior to 

 1826, in the possession of the Rev. E. Stuart of Houghton ; Pied 

 Flycatcher, Mr. Selby had one from Dorset ; Emberiza cirlus, Char- 

 mouth, Dr. Morris ; E. montifringilla, near Blandford, the late Hon. 

 A. Stuart, and also near Christchurch, Hants; Himndo riparia I 

 once saw late in autumn in very great abundance near late (the old 

 passage now) Portland Bridge, as if preparing to migrate ; Lesser Tern, 

 at Glanville's Wootton, end of October 1831 ; Lesser Black-backed 

 Gull, Charmouth, Dr. Morris ; Larus ridibundns (Black-headed Gull), 

 Charmouth, Dr. Morris; 1831-32, Tringa maritima (Bruce), shot 

 near Lyme Regis ; Colymbus stellaris and Procellaria Leachii near 

 Charmouth, by R. H. Sweeting, Esq., Surgeon, Charmouth. 



Your obedient Servant, 

 Christmas Eve, Glanville's Wootton, J. C. Dale. 



near Sherborne, Dorset. 



Ribes petrceum. — In Hooker's British Flora, ed. 4, Ribes petrceum 

 is combined with R. rubrum, and Wulfen's figure in Jacq. Aust., t. 

 49, is quoted as " bad ;" Smith also, in Eng. Bot., fol. 705, considers 

 that same figure as faulty, from the colour of its flowers. Now it 

 appears to me that Hooker is correct in referring the R. petrceum of 

 Smith to R. rubrum, but wrong in quoting Wulfen, since his plant 

 is described by all the continental writers as a distinct species, cha- 

 racterized by a campanulate coloured calyx, with its edges ciliated, 

 and leaves deeply divided into somewhat triangular acute lobes, 

 which are not serrated to their base ; whilst in R. rubrum the calyx 

 spreads so much as to be almost flat, and is not ciliated, and the 

 leaves are less deeply divided into rounded blunt lobes, serrated to 

 their base. I have examined specimens of R. petrceum from Bohemia 

 (contained in Tausch PI. Selectse), from Croatia (being No. 1736 of 

 Reich. Fl. Exsic), and from the Vosges mountains, and find them to 

 agree exactly with the above characters, and to be quite distinct 

 specifically from the plant called R. petrceum in Britain. The figure 

 in Jacquin's work is certainly far from being a good one, for it re- 

 presents the flowers of R. petrceum as spreading in the same manner 

 with those of R. rubrum, which is certainly not the case in the spe- 

 cimens that I have examined, and does not agree with the descrip- 

 tions given by foreign authors. Charles C. Babington. 



Cream-coloured Courser. — Mr. Mummery informs us that there has 

 just been placed in the Margate Museum a fine male specimen of 

 the Cream-coloured Courser (Cursorius europceus), an African bird, and 

 rarely found north of the Mediterranean (see Mr. Yarrell's ' Birds') . 



