128 MR. A. NEWTON ON FRINGILLA INCERTA. [April 8, 



taken for them. Neither does the colouring of the figure well agree 

 with my specimen, which, when fresh from the water, had a dark- 

 bluish-grey back, with sides and belly of a silvery grey, reflecting a 

 brassy lustre in certain directions of the light. The dorsal, pectoral, 

 and caudal fins were a deep black ; the ventral and anal fins a silvery 

 grey. The indigo-blue spots in pairs near the lateral line in the 

 figure seem to occupy the places of colourless mucous pores, which 

 were observed in my specimen at irregular intervals near that line. 



From this fish were obtained two species of Eutozoa, viz. some 

 large specimens of a Distoma, and several examples of a Tsenioid 

 worm, measuring altogether some feet in length. 



2. Remarks on the Fringilla incerta of Risso. 

 By Alfred Newton, M.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



Mr. George Dawson Rowley has entrusted to me, for exhibition to 

 the Society, a little bird which was brought to him alive at Brighton 

 on the 13th of March last, having been caught in a net in that 

 neighbourhood. It was ascertained by dissection to be a female ; 

 and, after examining it, I cannot but suspect that it may have been 

 from specimens similar to it that the descriptions of the female of 

 the so-called Fringilla incerta of Risso and other Continental writers 

 have been drawn up. I have never before seen a specimen which 

 agrees with these accounts, nor have I had access to the original 

 authorities ; but the compilation from them published by Dr. Degland 

 (Ornith. Europ. i. p. 202) so accurately describes the present ex- 

 ample that I do not hesitate to quote it. 



" Femelle : Dessus de la tete, derriere du con, scapulaires, dos et 

 sus-caudales d'un brun olivatre, plus clair a la tete, nuance de gris 

 sur les cotes du cou et sur le haut du dos ; poitrine et flancs d'un 

 gris olivatre, avec des taches longitudinales plus foncees ; abdomen 

 et sous-caudales d'un blanc sale ; rectrices et remiges, d'un noir oli- 

 vatre, avec le bord externe lisere de vert grisatre, les premieres ter- 

 minees de gris sale, ce qui forme deux bandes sur les ailes ; rectrices 

 de la couleur des remiges ; pieds d'un brun fauve." 



At the time of his writing the above passage, Dr. Degland states 

 that the Chlorospiza incerta was unknown to him ; but he subse- 

 quently says (op. cit. ii. p. 540) that he had obtained a male, 

 taken in a net near Lille, in September, 1849, and adds that he was 

 previously wrong in calling the species a Chlorospiza, for it was 

 evidently a true Pyrrhula. This last assertion awakened the ire or 

 the ridicule of Prince Bonaparte, who persists (Revue Critique, 

 pp. 31, 32) in his former assignment of the bird to Chlorospiza* 

 (Comp. List of Birds, 1838, p. 30), as he also does later (Consp. 



* There is apparently a misprint of 1852 for 1832, as the date of the establish- 

 ment of this genus, in Mr. G. R. Gray's most useful ' Catalogue of the Genera 

 and Subgenera of Birds,' p. 77. In the 'List of the Specimens of British Ani- 

 mals,' &c., part iii. Birds, p. 100, the latter date is given, with the reference 

 ' Pr. Bonap. Sagg. Distr. Met. Anim. Vert.' ; but I have been unable to consult the 

 original work. 



