750 The Zoologist— May, 1867. 



Common Dipper. — " Whether or not the blackbreasted water ouzel, 

 the Cinclus melanogaster of Gould's ' Birds of Europe,' is specifically 

 distinct from the ordinary British form, with a chestnut band across 

 the abdomen, or merely a climatal variety, undoubtedly our Norfolk 

 specimens belong to the former type. I have at different times 

 examined six or seven examples, all killed in this county, which, with 

 one exception to be hereafter mentioned, exhibited no trace of 

 chestnut on the under parts, but were identical with a Lapland speci- 

 men in the Norwich Museum (No. 40, b), collected in that country by 

 the late Mr. Wolley. We may naturally suppose, therefore, from 

 this circumstance, and the season at which our few Norfolk specimens 

 invariably appear, that they are chance stragglers from the Scandi- 

 navian peninsula ; and that this opinion is entertained also by Mr. 

 Gould, to whom I communicated the above particulars for his new 

 work on ' The Birds of Great Britain,' is shown by his concluding 

 remark, 'I can account for their occurrence in no other way.'" — 

 p. 69. 



Blueihroated Warbler. — "It is particularly worthy of note that 

 both these birds, as well as the first recorded British specimen now in 

 the Museum at Newcastle-on-Tyne, belong to the form with the red 

 spot prevailing in Scandinavia, and not to the white-spotted form 

 which yearly visits Germany and Holland. Of these two the Lowes- 

 toft specimen is the most perfect in plumage, both as to the extent 

 and vividness of the blue, and the purity of the red spot, the same 

 parts in the Yarmouth bird being less clearly defined. How far the 

 white or red spots may be considered as characteristics of two distinct 

 species it is difficult to say; it will suffice, however, for my present 

 purpose, to have shown that the only two examples met with on our 

 eastern coast are, like the dippers before alluded to, identical with 

 Lapland specimens, presented to the Norwich Museum by the late 

 Mr. Wolley, and are represented by the two figures in Dr. Bree's 

 •Birds of Europe' (vol. ii. p. 11). Having adopted the nomenclature 

 of \arrell in this work, I have retained his scientific designation 

 of Phcenicura suecica, the specific term 'suecica' being perfectly 

 applicable in the present instance, although not correctly so to the 

 white-spotted form, figured by that author in his 'British Birds.' 

 There is no doubt that the red-spotted form is the true Motacilla 

 suecica of Liunanis, subsequently described by Pallas as M. canule- 

 cula, and by Schlegel as Lusciola cyauecula orientalis; whilst the 

 white-spotted form, which does not seem to extend its range so far 



