ox xonrir amertcax wtti:ati:m;s~stj:.j xeoer. 



475 



It sooms that Gould in his '''Birds of Givat liiitain" also noted this 

 difI'(M-(Mi('(\ l)ut it was not till IH79 that Lord Clifton in more express 

 terms called attention to the two races, without naming- them, how- 

 ever. His remarks^ ar(> so nmch to the point that I take plcasui'e in 

 quoting them in full: 



The only authoritie.s that I have been able to discover on the subject are Gould 

 and Schlegel,'- other authors having failed to recognize any variation in the individ- 

 uals of Sa.rifola (iimnthc as generally recognizeii. Of these two authors Gould is the 

 only one who gives exact measurements of the large race. I therefore quote the 

 following from his "Birds of (Treat Britain:'" 



Without giving his other measurements these will l>e enough to show the propor- 

 tions of the two forms. As regards the difference in colouring, that is easily stated. 

 Both races assume in spring a grey back, a white forehead and eye streak, and a 

 darker wing; but while the smaller race changes from a reddish l)uff on the lower 

 surface to pale yellow l)uff on the throat and breast, and whitish on the abdomen, 

 the larger race retains the deep reddish buff on the throat and breast, and if there is 

 any difference between the autumn and spring colouring of these parts it is that there 

 is a richer glow' of red about them in spring than in autunm. 



It is clear, therefore, that, independently of size, the rich reddish throat of the larger 

 bird distinguishes it at once from the paler bird. 



It remains to say what little I know of the separate range and migration of this 

 larger race. It is soon told. I know nothing of the bird's occurrence west of Sussex; 

 but it certainly appears every May on the shores of Sussex and Kent, and also on the 

 opposite shores of the continent ( see Schlegel' s ' ' Birds of Europe " ) . Schlegel ' says it 

 appears "in the month of May." Gould obtained two specimens from Dungeness 

 on May 9. My brother, Mr. Ivo Bligh, shot one in Cobham Park, near Gravesend, 

 on May 1. This last specimen agrees exactly in size and color with Gould's life-size 

 figure, and also with specimens at Swaysland's, the Brighton bird preserver. 



On the whole, therefore, I am unable to see why such a distinctly large race, that 

 retains a red breast in summer and arrives on our southeast coast in May instead oi 

 March, should not be as worthy of recognition as the large lirightly coloured bullfinch 

 of eastern Europe. 



Unfortunately, as has already- been remarked. Lord Clifton omitted 

 to name the bird so well characterized by him, the inevitable result 

 being- that his successors simply ignored the existense of this large 

 bird, or only gave it a passing notice, as Seebohm ^ and Saunders."' 



' Ibis, 1879, pp. 256-257. 



^ A mistake for Degland, as I believe. — L. S. 



■''As already stated, I believe this to be a confusion with Degland's Ornithologie 

 Europeenne. Schlegel, to my knowledge, has published no Birds of Enrojie, nor 

 does he say anything of a large race fif Wheatcar in his Revue (184-1) or his Vogels 

 van Nederland (I860).— L. S. 



^ Hist. Brit. Birds and Eggs, I, 1883, p. 803. 



•^111. Man. Brit. Birds, 1889, p. 20. 



