Letters, Announcements, &;c. 257 



Without giving his other measurements, these will be 

 enough to show the proportions of the two forms. As re- 

 gards 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 buff on the lower surface to pale 

 yellow-buff on the throat and breast, and whitish on the ab- 

 domen, 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 autumn. 



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 large race. It is soon told. I know 

 nothing of the bird^s occurrence west of Sussex ; but it cer- 

 tainly 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 aj)pears ^"^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 1st. This last specimen agrees 

 exactly in size and colour with Gould's life-size figure, and 

 also with specimens at Swaysland^s, the Brighton bird- 

 preserver's. 



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 south-east coast in May instead of March, 

 should not be as worthy of recognition as the large brightly 

 coloured Bullfinch of Eastern Europe. 



Yours &c., 



Clifton, 



Nortlirepps, Norwich, 



20th March, 1877. 



Sirs,— In ' The Ibis ' for 1860, p. 171, for 1 862, p. 207, for 

 1873, p. 32-1, 1 recorded the laying of a series of eggs in confine- 



