174 FRINGILLID^. 



dark reddish-brown, or almost black, spots and specks, 

 besides blotches of pale purplish-red. Some specimens are 

 not unlike eggs of the Song- Thrush, though void of any 

 gloss, and, of course, much smaller. 



There are several appearances recorded of what seems to have 

 been this species, under various names*, in Germany towards 

 the end of the last century, but these have to be regarded with 

 suspicion ; and, though more than one example occurred, says 

 Bernhard Meyer (on the information of G. A. Germann) at Dor- 

 pat in 1803, the first about which no doubt can be said to exist 

 is that given by J. F. Naumann, who states that in 1805 he 

 saw, in the collection of Count von Mathuschka at Breslau, 

 a cock-bird one of a pair killed near that town which was 

 afterwards transferred to the Berlin Museum. The positive 

 assurance of so excellent an authority as the same Naumann, 

 that he himself met with this species breeding on Sylt in 

 1819, is of course entitled to all respect ; but it is yet to be 

 observed that not only must the extension of the bird's range 

 so far to the westward at that time be considered very extra- 

 ordinary, but also that, though he was told it was not rare 

 and had for many years bred there f, it has never since been 

 known to visit that island and only once to occur on the adjoin- 

 ing mainland!. Still further its breeding at all in a locality so 

 unlike that which it elsewhere seems to affect is by no means 

 the least surprising thing in connexion with the incident. 



Elsewhere in Western Europe this species has only been 

 observed as a wanderer. It has of course occurred in 

 Heligoland. An example is said to have been obtained 

 near Tournay, another near Abbeville, and a third at Lille, 

 Sept. 17th 1849 ; but it would seem to occur much more 

 frequently in the south of France the young especially 



* Much confusion has arisen between the present bird and the Fringilla flam- 

 med of Linnseus, a very doubtful species founded on one of Rudbeck's paintings, 

 which it is now almost impossible to dispel. 



f It seems possible that Naumann's informant may have mistaken a highly- 

 coloured cock Linnet (Linota cannabina) for this species, but of course he him- 

 self was incapable of such a blunder. 



J This, according to Herr Rohweder (Vog. Schleswig-Holstein's, p. 9), was at 

 Poppenbiill in Eiderstedt. 



