354 RETROSPECT. 



second general change of plumage, by which time the iris has nearly 

 lost its colour. The specimens in which the top of the head is described 

 as " whitish surrounded by rufous," were probably aged individuals, 

 and those which are mentioned as partially, or wholly black, were most 

 likely such as had fed much upon hempseed, which is well known to 

 have that effect upon the plumage of many birds in confinement, and 

 to my knowledge, no species is fonder of hempseed than that now 

 under consideration. The young hawfinches, in my neighbour's garden 

 were first discovered by the great havoc which they committed among 

 the green peas, and since one of their number has been brought down 

 by the gun, they have become extremely shy and suspicious. 



I think I may here safely record another instance of the parrot-cross- 

 bill (Loxia pytiopsittacus} , occuring in this neighbourhood, three winters 

 ago. The specimen was not preserved, having been unfortunately de- 

 stroyed by a cat ; but the very minute description which I received of 

 its size, and the peculiar structure of its bill, (which differs from those 

 of its congeners in the crossing point of the lower mandible not reach- 

 ing so high as the ridge of the upper one,) plainly indicated the bird 

 to have been of this species ; and on my showing plates of the different 

 LotficB, the L. pytiopsittacus was at once selected as the kind which 

 my informant had shot. 



No. for April, page 187- The account here given of a hawfinch 

 which I kept some time in confinement, together with remarks " on 

 the stomachs of birds," page 90, and on caged birds, page 190, with 

 various other short anecdotes, &c. interspersed through the several 

 numbers of this periodical, were extracted from a series of letters on 

 Natural History written by me some time since to the editor. The 

 hawfinch's song I have not as yet been able to ascertain ; the individual 

 above-mentioned contrived somehow or other to break his leg in such 

 a manner, that it was thought necessary to have him killed, and I have 

 not since succeeded in procuring another. The song of the bramblefinch 

 (if song it can be called) is extremely simple and monotonous ; a few 

 low chattering notes, varied occasionally by a harsh, dissonant call, is 

 all the melody which this handsome finch can boast of. The call-note 

 is not unfrequently uttered when the bird is not singing, and, with the 

 exception of its simple song, is the only sound I have ever heard from 

 this species. 



What the generic name of the bramblefinch and the chaffinch is, 

 according to modern nomenclature, I have never been able to learn : the 

 term Fringilla, used by the earlier naturalists to designate a numerous 



