340 Miscellaneous. 
me about two years ago that he was aware of other instances of such 
a hybrid. According to the views of the last-named accurate ob- 
server, the Anas bimaculata of Keyserling and Blasius*—the Anas 
glocitans of Gmelin (but not of Pallas)—is the result of this cross ; 
and Mr. Berkeley has also expressed a similar opinion (‘ Field,’ 
March 16,1861). With the greatest deference to these authorities, 
my own idea is that the birds so denominated have descended from 
the Wild Duck (Anas boschas, Linn.) and the Teal (Querquedula 
erecca, Steph.), as has already been suggested by Mr. Tomes and 
Mr. Bartlett (‘ Zoologist,’ p. 1698); and I have arrived at this con- 
clusion not only from repeated examinations of the specimens de- 
scribed by Mr. Vigors (Linn. Trans. xiv. p. 559), which are now 
in the British Museum, but also from having seen several other birds 
of the same kind in different collections. 
The principal distinctions observable between the subject of the 
present notice and the so-called Anas bimaculata are in the greater 
size of the former, and in the comparative obsoleteness of the dark 
patch which, in that supposed species, separates the lighter-coloured 
spots on the sides of the head. In the bird I now submit to your 
notice this patch is reduced to a mere line, scarcely perceptible until 
looked for. The breast also wants the well-defined dark spots which 
are characteristic of the hybrid known as the “ Bimaculated Duck.” 
—Proc. Zool. Soc. Dec. 10, 1861. 
On a new Species of Finch, of the Genus Sycalis, from Mexico. By 
Puruip Luriey Scuater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. 
In a small collection of Mexican birds lately sent to me for exami- 
nation by M. Parzudaki, of Paris, I find a little Finch of the genus 
Sycalis, which I propose to call— 
SYCALIS CHRYSOPS, Sp. nov. 
S. brunnescenti-olivacea, capite obscuriore substriato: interscapulio, 
alis et cauda nigricantibus, fusco marginatis: loris, oculorum 
ambitu, tectricibus subalaribus et corpore subtus flavis, pectore 
medio et lateribus obscurioribus, fuscescentioribus: rostro et 
pedibus fuscis. 
Long. tota 4-0, alee 2°6, caudze 1°6 poll. Angl. et dec. 
Hab. In Mexico merid. 
Obs. Affinis S. arvensi, sed staturé minore et loris ciliisque aureis 
distinguenda. 
This bird is interesting as the first species of the genus Sycalis 
recorded from the country north of Panama. It was, however, to 
be expected that the Trans-Panamanic province of the Neotropical 
region would produce representatives of this, as of other peculiar 
South-American genera. Sycalis chrysops belongs to the same sub- 
group as 8. arvensis, but may readily be distinguished from it by its 
diminutive size.— Proc. Zool. Soc. Nov. 26, 1861. ' 
* Several writers assign the authority of Pennant for the trivial name “ d¢ma- 
culata.” J cannot trace it further back than the ‘ Wirbelthiere Europas’ of the 
naturalists I have mentioned. There is no question about the .dnas glocitans of 
Pallas being a good species, but I do not know any recorded instance of its oc- 
currence in Europe.. 
