13ft THE B[RDS OF Sl'SSEX. 



PINE GROSBEAK. 



Pyrrhula enucleator. 



This extremely uucommou visitor is reported to have 

 appeared twice in Sussex. It is au inhabitant of all the 

 coniferous zone of the northern parts of both the Old and the 

 New World, and possesses much of the retiring habits of the 

 Bullfinch. It is almost always a tame and unsuspicious 

 bird, and has acquired a reputation, quite undeserved, for 

 stupidity. The cock, in early spring, utters his melody from 

 the summit of a fir tree, chiefly at sunrise and sunset (see 

 YarrelFs B. B. vol. ii. pp. 184-5). Mr. Knox, in his O. B,. 

 makes this statement : — " I can record but two instances of 

 this rare bird in Sussex ; an example was shot near Cotes 

 House, about three miles from Petworth, while feeding on 

 the seeds of a Pinaster, by a gentleman of the name of 

 McUish, who, being well acquainted with British birds, at 

 once recognized the species. In February 1848, two were 

 killed at the same time in Ashdown Forest, one of them, which 

 I saw, was an adult male.^' But in the ' Zoologist ' for 1877, 

 p. 247, concerning these two specimens, Mr. J. H. Gurney, 

 Junr., writes : — ^' Although it was believed at the time that 

 they had been killed as stated, Mr. Knox informs me by 

 letter, that he now almost begins to doubt them.^'' 



In the same paper Mr. Gurney also states that he saw in 

 the possession of Mr. T. J. Monk, of Lewes, a handsome 

 yellow male bird obtained at Shoreham, near the old bridge. 



