383 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



nees (no. 655, fig. 2), as la bonscarle de Provence. Upon this 

 figure Gmelin founded his Motacilla sylvia, var. 7. Curruca 

 fulvescens, in 1788. Ornithological jMc^j/e*' law does not, how- 

 ever, recognize the varieties of Gmelin ; and we pass on to 

 1820, where we find our bird reappearing as Sylvia cetti of La 

 Marmora. In 1829 the genus Potamodus was established by 

 Kaup ; and Cetti's Warbler has sometimes appeared as Pota- 

 modus cetti (Marm.) . This latter genus, however, was founded 

 upon Sylvia fluviatilis, by which Kaup doubtless meant an 

 Acrocephalus or a Locustella. Bonaparte was the first to esta- 

 blish a separate genus expressly for Sylvia cetti ; and he having 

 raised the specific name into a generic one, we are again 

 driven elsewhere to find the second oldest name. This appears 

 to be Sylvia sericea (Natt.) apud Temm. (Man. d'Orn. i. 

 p. 197) j so that our bird appears in Bonaparte's ' Birds of 

 Europe and North America' (p. 12) as Cettia sericea (Natt.) — 

 a name to which it appears to be entitled with the alteration 

 in the authority to ''(Temm.)," no publication of the name 

 by Natterer himself having taken place. 



Yours &c. 



Henry Seebohm. 



Brankston Grange, Ciilross, N.B., 

 lOtli May, 1878. 



Sirs, — I beg to send you the following notice of three recent 

 occurrences of the Stockdove {Columba oenas) in Scotland, one 

 in Stirlingshire, and the other two in this neighbourhood 

 (Southern Perthshire), which may be interesting to the readers 

 of ' The Ibis,' as only two instances of its occurrence north of 

 the Tweed have hitherto been recorded, one of which is ex- 

 tremely doubtful (for both, vide Gray's ' Birds of the West of 

 Scotland,' p. 219) . 



The first of these specimens I have now to record was shot 

 on 20th March last, as it flew from a tree close to Alva House, 

 Stirlingshire. It was sent for preservation by the game- 

 keeper who shot it; but the sex was not ascertained. 



The second bird, a female, was shot on 25th March, on the 

 estate of Tulliallan, adjoining this one (Westgrange), by a 



