260 Bulletin of the British 



due to preparation. Thus I think no one can any longer 

 doubt the identity of De Vis and Salvadori's species, which 

 must stand under the name of Loria lorice, Salvadori/' 



Mr. Ernst Hartert exhibited specimens of Nucifraga 

 brachyrhyncha and N. macrorhyncha of C. L. Brehm. [For 

 his remarks, see Bull. no. xlii. p. xxxi ; infra, p. 265.] 



Mr. Hartert also exhibited and drew attention to Certhia 

 familiaris, L., and C. brachydactyla, C. L. Brehm, the former 

 being paler above, purer white below, and having a shorter 

 bill. C. brachydactyla was darker and browner above, not 

 so pure white below, and had generally a much longer beak. 

 The former was the usual form in East Prussia, where 

 Mr. Hartert had collected many specimens which were all 

 true C familiaris, while on the Lower Rhine, near Wesel, 

 where the bird was very common, over 40 specimens, shot at 

 different times of the year, were all typical C. brachydactyla. 

 Also all the birds examined from Holland and Northern 

 Westphalia were C. brachydactyla. But not everywhere were 

 they so definitely separated. Even in East Prussia, C. brachy- 

 dactyla had been found recently ; and in Hesse, in Saxony, 

 and in Silesia both occurred close to each other. At Schloss 

 Berlepsch the true C. familiaris was found on the hills, but 

 C. brachydactyla occurred in the valley, on the willows and 

 poplars along the river. Mr. Kleinschmidt thought the 

 former was an inhabitant of pine-forests, the latter more a 

 bird of leafy woods, such as oak and beech, and of parks and 

 gardens. This explanation was probably right, but in some 

 places the forms did not seem to be so well separated as they 

 were in Prussia and Holland, for example. However, as the 

 note of the two birds was certainly different (as already 

 proved by Brehm, Homeyer, Kleinschmidt, and others), and 

 as the eggs of C. brachydactyla were mostly, though not always, 

 more thickly blotched, they would at present better stand as 

 species than as subspecies, until it might turn out that they 

 intergrade completely in certain places. The British bird 

 was C brachydactyla in a slightly differentiated form, and 

 C familiaris did not seem to occur in England at all. 



