186 1] Uncertainties as to British Birds. 141 



tion has been paid to the bird : surely its nesting or not ought by this 

 time to be beyond doubt. 



The other day I saw in M'Gillivray's " Natural History of Dee- 

 side " a statement that the Snow Bunting breeds on the Aberdeenshire 

 mountains ; and several names are quoted in support of the truth of 

 this. I am going to write to Professor Dickie, at Aberdeen, to see if 

 he can do anything in the way of tracing out some of these people 

 who profess to have seen the bird in the summer. As usual the state- 

 ment is quite unsatisfactory, no mention being made of a nest, or eggs, 

 or fledgelings. It would be curious to compile a list of birds reported 

 to have nested in Britain, to include Redwing, Fieldfare, &c. I don't 

 know whether the Snow Bunting is in any better predicament. 



I have written to Jardine, sending him the table I have drawn up 

 of distribution in Scotch counties, asking him to fill in Dumfries, and 

 any other stray birds he may know of as nesting in other counties. 

 Mr. Shearer has been looking after the Skuas. Unfortunately a 

 wretch of a keeper has nearly exterminated the lot. He has, I fear, 

 only obtained the Richardson's Skua; but his specimen will show. 

 I have a great notion he may have been right about Buffon's. Can 

 you refer me to any book or paper on the birds which nest in Holland 

 and Belgium ? other than Deby's ? . . . Please let me have the proof 

 back as soon as you can, so that the copies may be struck off. Please 

 say too if you would like any for yourself. I shall take about 200 I 

 think. Yours, 



A. G. MORE. 



Enough has been quoted to render unnecessary any 

 apology for concluding this chapter with a paragraph 

 extracted from Mr. Newton's essay " On the possibility of 

 taking an Ornithological Census," which appeared in the 

 " Ibis "for April, 1861 (pp. 190-196). The personal refe- 

 rence will readily be understood. 



It is unnecessary in these days, if it ever was otherwise, to show 

 how much light has been thrown upon natural history by an under- 

 standing of the geographical distribution of species. Yet our 

 acquaintance with this extensive field of research is very limited. 

 The six great physical regions of the earth's surface have been defined 

 with more or less accuracy, but the details are very far from being 

 filled in. Meritorious efforts have been made to determine the summer 

 range of the Nightingale, and the lines of the Crane's simultaneous 

 arrival. The progressive advance of the Republican Swallow in North 

 America, of the Grey Partridge in Scandinavia, and of the House 

 Sparrow in Siberia, have been recorded. The respective parallelism 

 which obtains in certain families or genera inhabiting the Greater 

 Antilles has been noticed, and a comparison made between the number 



