270 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Luscuiia suecica (Linn.), Sundev. Sv. Fogl. p. 60 (1856). 



Cyanecula suecica (Linn.), ft. ceerulecula (Pall.), Newt. List B. Eur. Blasius, p. 10 



(1862). 



Ruticilla suecica (Linn.), Newt. cd. Yarr. Br. B. i. p. 321 (1873). 

 Erithacus ceeruleculus (Pall), Seebohm, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. v. p. 308 (1881). 



The Arctic Bluethroat is a far more eastern and northern bird in 

 its distribution than the White-spotted species (which is essentially a 

 southern and temperate one), and is a summer visitant only to the higher 

 and northern portions of Europe. It was first recorded as a British bird 

 by Mr. Fox, in his ' Synopsis of the Newcastle Museum/ pp. 298, 308, 

 and in the 'Zoological Journal/ iii. p. 497, from a specimen obtained on 

 the Town-Moor of Newcastle-on-Tyne, on May 20th, 1826, by Mr. Thomas 

 Embleton, who presented it to the museum. The second specimen, said 

 to have been killed in Dorsetshire, was recorded by Mr. J. C. Dale, in the 

 ' Naturalist/ ii. p. 275. The next two occurrences are recorded by Yarrell, 

 in his ' British Birds/ i. p. 322 one of a specimen killed near Birmingham, 

 and in the possession of Mr. Plumptre Methuen ; the other, a male bird, 

 found dead on the beach at Yarmouth, September 21st, 1841. Mr. 

 Morris also mentions, on the authority of Mr. E. Cole, one shot at Margate, 

 in September 1842; and in September 1844 two specimens, an adult and 

 a bird of the year, were sent, in the flesh, to Yarrell for inspection, by Mr. 

 Gardner, and were said to have been shot in the Isle of Sheppey. An 

 eighth example is in the Strickland collection in the University Museum 

 of Cambridge ; but no particulars are known respecting it beyond those on 

 the label, "Britain, 1846." Lord Lilford recorded in the ' Zoologist/ 

 p. 3709, another example, shot about Sept. 15th, 1852, near Whimple, in 

 South Devon. A female, killed at Worthing on May 2nd, 1853, is men- 

 tioned by Mr. Stevenson in the < Zoologist/ p. 3907 ; and a male bird, 

 killed early in May 1856, near Lowestoft (Zool. p. 5149), is now in Mr! 

 Gurney's collection. Mr. Cecil Smith notices one said to have been taken 

 in Somerset in 1856, and now in the Exeter Museum; and Mr. H. Pratt 

 records in the < Zoologist/ p. 8281, a male caught at Brighton, on October 

 1st, 1862, and now in Mr. Borrer's collection. Captain Hadfield gives us 

 a series of notes on a Bluethroat which frequented a locality in the Isle 

 of Wight from February 1865 to September 1867, and recorded in the 

 ' Zoologist ' for those years, being part of the time accompanied by a 

 second example. It is doubtful, however, whether this bird was the true 

 E. suecica; for in the < Zoologist' for 1866, p. 172, he states that the 

 bird's breast was "pure and spotless blue"* characteristic of the E. wolfii 

 of Brehm. Professor Newton has also been informed by Mr. Gray that a 

 male bird was caught on board a fishing-boat off Aberdeen, on May 16th, 

 1872. Mr. G. P. Moore mentions, in the < Zoologist' for 1877 p 449 a 

 male bird, in the possession of R. C. Fowler, Esq., of Gunton, near 



