The Zoologist— June, 1867. 789 



generation in much tbe same way as lunacy or the gout in families? The dog was 

 a very good house dog. The same fanner told me that he once had a horse who was 

 (."chany-eyed," not blind in any way, but who was born with a brown and a blue eye. 

 This is also a curious fact; is it usual ? I have heard of one other instance. — Alexander 

 Clark Kenned;/; Eton. 



A Mouse's Store. — Mr. J. Dickens, of the Saracen's Head, near Holbeach, has just 

 discovered a mouse's nest in his garden in which a winter's store of 1329 filbert mils 

 had been secreted by the industrious little animal. They measured half a peck, and 

 weighed six pounds. 



Double Bird's Nesl. — Between the upright stems of an oak and two thorns, at the 

 bottom of my garden, a pair of wrens built : whilst they were sitting a pair of flycatchers 

 selected the top of the wren's nest for the foundation of their own, which they 

 completed and occupied before the young wrens had flown, neither pair, so far as I 

 could ascertain, interfering in the least with the other. The wrens have again built 

 in the same situation, so I hope the flycatchers may return to their old home, 

 though I fear the wrens will have left before the others commence operations. — Herbert 

 Greenwood ; Sandford Lodge, Hampstead, May 13, 1867. 



What gives a Bird a claim to be classed as British ? — If your correspondent " B. 

 T. S." had looked over the lists of European birds, in the fourth volume of my work 

 on the 'Birds of Europe,' with care, he would have observed two things: first, my 

 two lists treat of birds occurring in Europe, not Britain ; secondly, in my second list 

 I have always referred to the country in Europe in which the bird has been accidentally 

 observed. This is the case of the brown snipe alluded to by " B. T. S." I find it 

 entered in my second list thus, " 51. Scolopax grisea, Gm. N. A. England. Brown 

 snipe, Yar. 3. Mor. 4." With regard to Sabine's snipe, I have given it in List 1, No. 

 367, as a var. of the common snipe. Steller's western duck was admitted into my List 

 No. 1 because it has occurred in Sweden, Denmark and Germany, as well as England, 

 aud if, as Gmelin asserted, it breeds in Kamchatka, it is most probably a more frequent 

 visitor to northern Europe than at present recorded. The buffelheaded duck is placed 

 in List 2, No. 70, and England, its only (I believe) European locality, has been given. 

 The American whitewinged crossbill (Loxia leucoptera) has occurred in England 

 accidentally: I have a specimen shot in Suffolk. Gould, in his beautiful work ' Birds 

 of Great Britain,' also figures and describes tbe Loxia bifasciata of Nilsson = Cruci- 

 rostra ttenioptera of Gloger, as a distinct whitewinged crossbill, and this is the point I 

 presume in which the Editor of the ' Ibis,' like many other naturalists, differs from Mr. 

 Gould. Bartram's sandpiper (Totanus Barlramia, Tern.) is No. 48 of my List No. 2, 

 and England and Germany given as localities where it has been observed. With 

 regard to tbe geueral question, "What constitutes a British bird?" the only answer 

 which I think can be given is, that systematic writers on British birds have hitherto 

 introduced all birds whose appearance in Great Britain has been authentically recorded 

 once. I think this is a great mistake, and ought to he opposed by all scientific orni- 

 thologists. In all humility I ventured to separate these birds in my European lists, 

 considering those which either bred or were frequent visitors in Europe as belonging 

 to its Fauna, while those which appeared accidentally I placed in a different list. I 

 have arranged my egg-cabinet on this plan. Professor Newton, the Editor of the ' Ibis,' 



