xiv INTRODUCTOEY. 



Ked-breastecl Goose, Bernida ruficolUs (Pallas) ; Mr. 

 Hugh P. Hornby writes November, 1882, and with 

 reference to a note of his in the Zoologist for 1872, 

 p. 3236, " I quite believe that the two geese shot over 

 t^venty-five years ago on Sowerby meadows (near St. 

 Michael's-on-Wyre), and called by our keeper, R. Crook, 

 ' Siberian Geese,' belonged to this species." 



Owing to a misprint for Lincolnshire in ]\Iontagu's 

 " Ornithological Dictionary," 1st edit., 1802, 'the 

 Bearded Tit, Panunis hicmnicus (L.), has been errone- 

 ously recorded by many writers as a Lancashire species, 

 and in The Zoologist, 1879, p. 305, I pointed this out. 



The Stone-Curlew, CEdicnemus scolopa.v (S.G. Gmelin), 

 has also been catalogued as a Lancashire bird (" Fauna 

 of Liverpool," 1856, Byerley ; Xat. Scrap Booh-, part 

 12, R. Reynolds), but in all cases I believe there has 

 been an error in identification. 



The dates of arrival and departure of migrating species 

 can only be given approximately, and there is no doubt 

 that these vary considerably with the character of the 

 season ; that is, in relation to the food-supply, and not 

 so much to a few degrees of temperature, for it is warmer 

 when birds go than when they come. The obser- 

 vations of the late Mr. Blackwall (" Researches in 

 Zoology," 1834, p. 8 et seq.) have shown that, taking a 

 hap-hazard number of years, 1817 to 1828, the mean 

 temperature of September and October was higher than 

 that of April, and — in the cases of the Cuckoo and the 

 Swift especially — that which prevailed at their departure 

 was uniformly higher than on their arrival. 



The uselessness of averages may be seen by a glance 

 at the annexed tables compiled by Mr. Blackwall, the 

 j&rst of which gives the average dates of arrival round 

 Manchester of a series of summer visitors from 1814 to 



