256 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



" Oil an uniform Method of Registration for Observations 

 on Natural History^ especially as regards Distribution and 

 Migration ^^ (Proc. Glasg. Nat.-Hist. Soc. 1876-77). In the 

 press. 



" On the Distribution of the Birds of N. Russia. — Part I. 

 The Latitudinal Distribution of Birds of N.E. Russia. Part 

 II. The Longitudinal Distribution of Birds of N. Russia, 

 north of 64° 30' N. lat.^' (Annals & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1877.) 

 Part i. in the press, part ii. in MS., part iii. in preparation"^. 



John A. Harvie Brown. 



P.S. I may be allowed to add that I knew nothing of Dr. 

 RadakoflF^s work until about a week ago, when I heard of it 

 from Messrs. Friedlander & Sohn, Berlin. 



Cobham, March 12, 1877. 



Sirs, — As a very recently elected and extremely unsci- 

 entific member of the B. O. U., it is with great diffidence 

 that I ask leave to call attention to a neglected point in the 

 natural history of the Wheatear [Saxicola oenanthe) . 



I allude to the two very distinct races of that bird, which 

 I cannot help thinking fully as worthy of scientific recog- 

 nition as the two races of Bullfinch [Fyrrhula eurojjcea and 

 P. major) . 



Indeed, as I propose to show, there is considerable analogy 

 between the two cases, the larger race being in each case 

 distinguished by a deeper colouring as well as by size. 



The only authorities that I have been able to discover on 

 the subject are Gould and Schlegel, other authors having 

 failed to recognize any variation in the individuals of Saxicola 

 osnanthe as generally recognized. Of these two authors 

 Gould is the only one who gives exact measurements of the 

 larger race ; I therefore quote the following from his ' Birds 

 of Great Britain ' : — 



Length. Spread, of wing. Wing, 

 in. in. in. 



