CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBMCATIONS. 139 



division. As regards the name " Stock Pigeon," we think it highly 

 improbable •;hat the name was given on account of that species being 

 supposed to be the original of the dove-cot race ; it has been sup- 

 posed to be rather from the fact of the bird building in the stunted 

 trees termed " stocks." 



The following passage is a good hint for those naturalists who 

 when they meet with any bird at large in this country, no matter 

 whether a Parrot or a Finch, a Honeysucker or a Wren, confidently 

 add it to the British fauna : — 



"These [Columba palumhus, C. anas, C. livia, and C. turlurl are all the Pi- 

 geons that have any claims upon our consideration. An individual of the 

 American Passenger Pigeon, Eclopistes mifpnlorin, is recorded by Dr. Flem- 

 ing, as having been shot in December, 1825, in the neighbourhood of a 

 Pigeon-house at Westhall, in the parish of Monymeal, Fifeshire. The fea- 

 thers, according to the describer of this specimen, ' were quite fresh and en- 

 tire, like those of a wild bird.' Why not ? If it had escaped from confine- 

 ment and resided in a dovecot for half a year, it might have its plumage as 

 neat as that of any other bird. Such a circumstance affords no criterion. A 

 beautiful specimen of the Dominican Grosbeak, Loxia Dominicana, in perfect 

 plumage, was sent to me fresh in the winter of 1831. It had been shot some- 

 where near Dalkeith, and I made a drawing of it for my collection of British 

 birds ; but soon after it was reported to have escaped from Lady Dalhousie's 

 aviar}^. In June, 1835, a lovely little bird, fresh and with perfect plumage, 

 was brought to me from Braid Hermitage, near Edinburgh, where it had 

 been shot when in company with another of the same species, supposed to be 

 the female. It turned out to be the Loxia astrilda. Its skin forms a part of 

 my collection ; but I should no more think of assigning this species a place 

 among British birds than of admitting the Migratory Pigeon. Yet its claims 

 are certainly equal, for its feathers ' were quite fresh and entire, like those of 

 a wild bird,' and remain so to the present day." — p. 294. 



At page 331 it is observed that albino individuals of the Chaff 

 Finch sometimes occur, although the author has not met with a 

 British one. We have never seen one quite white, but we once 

 possessed a very curious specimen with as much of white as any 

 other colour. The individual alluded to appeared above the usual 

 size, though this was probably only an error of the stuffer. By the 

 way, this reminds us of an observation of our author's which the 

 student will do well to keep in mind : — 



" As to a difference in size observed by persons visiting museums, I have 

 only to remark, what every collector must know, that two birds of equal size 

 prepared either as skins or as stuffed specimens by two individuals, may dif- 

 fer exceedingly in size. I knew a bird-stufler who, in pre])aring Grouse, 

 crammed them to the utmost, to make them look fine large birds ; and a 

 person wlio has collected about a Inmdred skins of Britisli birds for me, has 

 almost invariably made them much too short." — p. 210. 



In the description of the House Sparrow our author alludes to 

 what Mr. Neville Wood says relative to the supposed familiarity of 

 the species, and agrees with the common opinion in this respect. 

 We must, however, observe that the House Sjiarrow is remarkably 

 distrustful of man considering that it lives so much in the neigh- 



