NOTES. 131 



Of its distribution he says : — " The Bullfinch is generally 

 distributed in Britain, occurring in most of our wooded and 

 cultivated districts, but avoiding bare maritime tracts, as 

 well as the northern islands, which are destitute of wood." 

 Then, at the end of the article he adds: — "The Common 

 Bullfinch is said by authors to be of general occurrence in 

 the northern and temperate parts of Europe." It is thus 

 quite clear that Macgillivray described the British Bullfinch, 

 and that only, for he merely adds that it is " said by authors " 

 to inhabit great parts of Europe besides. The author also 

 says that he has " not observed any remarkable differences 

 between individuals, indicating the existence of two species 

 usually confounded, although I have heard it said that such 

 have been met with." It follows that MacgilHvray never 

 came across the Northern Bullfinch, which occurs, though 

 very rarely, as a straggler in England. 



The case of the name of the British Bullfinch appears to 

 me to be different from that of the Lesser Spotted Wood- 

 pecker. Macgillivray also bestowed a new name on this 

 species in his work on " British Birds " (Vol. III., p. 86), 

 calling it Picus striolatus. But then he says that he changed 

 its name to striolatus because this species was by no means 

 the smallest of even the Spotted Woodpeckers, and he 

 regards this bird as "pecuHar to Europe," saying that it is 

 " said to be more abundant in the northern parts of Europe 

 than in France and Germany," while it has not been found 

 in Scotland, nor even in many parts of England. I therefore 

 take it that Macgillivray re-named the " European " Linnean 

 Lesser Woodpecker, and consequently I bestowed a new name 

 on the British Lesser Spotted Woodpecker {antea Vol. L, 

 p. 221). On the other hand, I think that we can safely adopt 

 the name pileata for the British Bullfinch, and thus avoid 

 creating a new name for this bird. 



Ernst Hartert. 



HOW A CUCKOO DEPOSITED HER EGG. 



Mr. G. H. Higson kindly sends the following note from the 

 huntsman of the Ynysfor Hounds, whom he describes as a 

 very keen and accurate observer : — 



" On the evening of May 24th I strolled down as far as the 

 marsh to look for some nests, and found a Meadow Pipit's, 

 with four eggs, quite cold. The Kttle birds were foUo^v^ing a 

 Cuckoo close by, so I laid down in the rushes on the side of a 

 ditch, within five yards of the nest, and watched. Presently 

 the Cuckoo alighted near, and walking up to the nest, picked 



