574 Letters, Extracts, Notices, &;c. 



In the ' Zoologist ' for 1877, p. 22, Mr. Corbin records a 

 black Starling in Hampshire; and in the ^Yorkshire Natu- 

 ralist^ for 1886, p. 307, Mr. James Backhouse records 

 another shot at Howden, in Yorkshire. These may have 

 been veritable examples of the Sardinian Starling {Sturnus 

 unicolor, which had flown over to England, or, what is 

 more likely, they may have been examples o£ our Common 

 Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) which had assumed the sable garb 

 of an allied species, so as to be almost indistinguishable 

 from it. 



In 1863 a Snipe [Gallinago coelestis) was killed in Buck- 

 inghamshire, which to so great an extent possessed the 

 characters of Gallinago wilsoni of America, as to lead Mr. 

 Gould and Mr. Harting to believe at first that it was assign- 

 able to that species (Harting, Handbook B. B. p. 143). 



In 1864 a Buzzard was killed in Wiltshire which so closely 

 resembled Buteo desertorum (Daudin) that Mr. Gould and 

 my father both decided it must be of that species. But after 

 all, according to the theory now advanced, it may have been 

 only B. vulgaris (Leach), a closely allied species and one 

 which varies greatly. My father afterwards recorded two 

 more specimens (Ibis, 1878, p. 118), killed in England, indis- 

 tinguishable from B. desertorum. 



It is very difficult to arrive at the truth, but on looking 

 over the list of British birds there are several doubtful species, 

 besides those which have now been enumerated, supposed to 

 be accidental stragglers which have flown over the sea to us, 

 which it is not at all impossible may be accounted for in the 

 manner which has just been indicated, viz., by supposing 

 that they are the abnormal ofl'spring of normally coloured 

 parents, and that they have assumed a plumage which does 

 not belong to them. It is only reasonable to suppose that 

 many more cases of like variation might be obtained by look- 

 ing abroad, if the search were made by a sufficiently competent 

 ornithologist, which the writer does not for one moment 



suppose himself to be. 



Yours &c., 



J. II. GuRNEY, Jun. 



