Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, &^c. 201 



by bird-catchers. It was a cross between the Green Finch, 

 Fringilla chloris, and the Brown Linnet^ Fringilla cannabina. 

 This remarkable bird had the large beak, legs, claws, and thick 

 skull of a Green Finch, with the colours on the breast, back, 

 and elsewhere of the Brown Linnet, forming together, to an 

 ornithological eye, a most strange combination. The feathers 

 of this hybrid were clean and perfect, showing no marks of 

 confinement ; nor indeed would these birds produce a cross in 

 captivity. 



I may take this opportunity of stating how entirely I concur 

 with my friend Mr. Alfred Newton in his interesting article on 

 Turdus musicus, when he says that British Ornithology is not 

 exhausted; nay, more, though I am only too thankful for such 

 works as have been so well written by Yarrell and others, I ven- 

 ture to assert that a complete History of British Birds is, like 

 that of our country, still a desideratum ; and the authors (for, 

 that the History may be anything like satisfactory, they must 

 be many) would have to imitate the patient observation of that 

 accurate naturalist, the late Mr. Wolley. 



Yours, &c., 



George Dawson Rowley. 



Brighton, January 16th, 1860. 



Several letters and a small box of birds' skins and eggs have 

 been received from Mr, Edward Newton, now in the Mauritius ; 

 but, as yet, circumstances have prevented his turning his atten- 

 tion, as much as he could have wished, to the ornithology of 

 that island. He announces the existence of a second Tropic- 

 bird, in addition to the Red-tailed species {Phaeton phcenicurus) 

 already known to frequent the adjacent seas. Among the skins 

 sent home by Mr. Newton are specimens of Tinnunculus punc- 

 tatus, Collocalia francica, Oxynotus ferrugineus, Tchitrea horho- 

 nica, Zoster ops horbonica, and Z. curvirostris, Turdus ourovang (?), 

 Foudia madagascariensis and F. errjthi'ocephala, Estrelda astrild, 

 Serinus ictents, and the cosmopolitan Squatarola helvetica ! Of 

 Collocalia francica he has likewise transmitted specimens of the 

 sternum and trachea, which fully confirm the justice of the 

 opinion in accordance with which that genus has lately been 



VOL. II. P 



