202 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



two examples of the Scarlet Rose Finch have also 

 occurred in this country. It is a most interesting 

 little bird, and breeds as close to us as the Baltic 

 Provinces, yet goes all the way to India to winter! 

 Odd birds now and then take the wrong direction, 

 and wander west instead of east. One other Finch 

 should be looked for in this country, as most likely 

 to appear in autumn, and that is the eastern form 

 of the Common Bullfinch, to which naturalists 

 have assigned the name of Pyrrhula major. 

 Stray examples of this race repeatedly wander to 

 Germany ; and there is nothing to prevent them 

 being brought by the western wave of migration 

 from the east to the British Islands. 



The researches of the late Mr. Swaysland, of 

 Brighton whose accomplishments as a field 

 naturalist have been carefully and wilfully ignored 

 by his " scientific " but far less learned contempo- 

 raries, who have profited largely by his know- 

 ledge have shown that the Wild Canary and the 

 Serin are accidental wanderers here in autumn. 

 The former species is probably blown north from 

 its island home by exceptionally severe gales ; 

 the latter is an accidental straggler from the 

 woods of Western Europe, probably by way of 

 Heligoland. Among the various Finches that 

 visit us in the autumn must be mentioned the 

 Mealy Redpole, an inhabitant of the Arctic forests ; 

 its close ally, the Greenland Redpole, has also 

 been obtained in this country at the same time of 

 year. Three other strictly eastern species of 

 birds, which have wandered as far west as the 



