ON THE PINE GROSBEAK. 243 
suggestion of a friend, and send the result of my investigations 
to the present time for publication in ‘ The Zoologist.’ 
Mr. Harting, in his ‘ Handbook of British Birds’ (p. 113), has 
given a list of nearly all the reported occurrences of the Pine 
Grosbeak in Great Britain, collected from various sources,* and 
one would suppose at first sight, from his long category, that there 
could be no doubt about the claim of this bird to be regarded as 
British. Many species, indeed, in that work have appended to 
their names far shorter lists of recorded occurrences, and have 
never been suspected to be interlopers. But on examining the 
list of Pine Grosbeaks, we perceive on what slender evidence a 
great many of them have been introduced. I think I cannot do 
better than follow Mr. Harting, and taking them seriatim as he 
gives them, state as fairly as I can the pros and cons in regard 
to each. 
1. The Pine Grosbeak appears to have been first introduced 
into the list of British Birds by Thomas Pennant, the well-known 
author of the ‘ British Zoology.’ In that work (4th ed., vol. i., p.317) 
he says, “I have seen them flying above the great pine forests of 
Invercauld, in Aberdeenshire ; and I imagine they breed there, for 
I saw them on the 5th of August.” He adds that one that he “saw 
in Scotland and believed to be a female was (like the female Cross- 
bill) of a dirty green, the tail and quill-feathers dusky.” Nothing 
has ever transpired to make us doubt the correctness of Pennant’s 
identification of the species, which he has accurately described, 
except the rather significant fact that none are known with cer- 
tainty to have been seen in Scotland since. This of itself, however, 
is not sufficient proof that the bird was not once found there. 
2. In a catalogue ot the rarer birds met with in the parish of 
Kirkmichael, in Dumfriesshire, by Dr. Burgess, published about 
1792, the Pine Grosbeak is included; but Dr. Burgess’ name is 
unknown to ornithologists, and what weight may be attached to his 
authority in the matter it is impossible to say. Professor Newton 
informs me that Kirkmichael is close’ to Jardine Hall, but that 
Sir William Jardine (who, as every one knows, was a very good 
naturalist), in writing on the fauna of Dumfriesshire, in the ‘ New 
Statistical Account of Scotland, makes no mention of the Pine 
Grosbeak. Mr. Robert Gray, who I believe first drew attention to 
* One or two others which were unknown to him at the date of his publication 
will be found mentioned at the end of this paper. 
