4 8G ABLET BULLFINCH. 



die correct one. It lias been held by ornithologists ever since. The 

 omission of the name among my synonymes in the first edition was 

 purely accidental. 



Dr. Schrenck thinks "that the specimens killed on the Amoor are 

 more splendidly coloured than those from China, the Altai Mountains, 

 and Europe. Those from Kamtschatka are hardly inferior in the 

 brilliancy of the colours. The female from the Amoorland has the 

 well-known dull olive brown plumage tinged with green, particularly 

 on the rump and back, and more so than in the reijresentations of 

 Bonaparte and Schlegel. The Scarlet Bullfinch is sjDread over the 

 whole of Siberia to Kamtschatka, as recorded by Gmelin, Stiller, 

 Pallas, Kittlitz, and Middendorfi*, also appears in the Amoorland, and 

 there nests in the thick willow plots of the lower and often bog 

 islands of the Amoor River. It breeds there the beginning of June." 



Naumann has given a very complete account of the bird, from which 

 I have gathered the following: — "For several years, in the early spring, 

 a pair of these birds were seen near Breslau, among the willows and 

 reeds of a swampy district. The male and female were always near 

 together, and the former sung gaily. They were both killed at a 

 single shot, but the female was not found. The male is now in the 

 museum at Berlin. Later another pair were also shot. 



"This bird does not, according to my observation, like large thick 

 woods. I have seen it where there were none at all, namely, at Sylt, 

 in Jutland. In one part of this island there are no other species of 

 trees but small thorn bushes. 



*'In the northern narrow part of the island, where, between high 

 sand downs, a narrow creek runs into the land, is a little thicket 

 surrounded by a low earthen wall, in which is the renowned duck 

 decoy. The ponds, canals, and the decoy man's house are all sur- 

 rounded by alder trees and thorn bushes. There is also a thick reed 

 bank, about ten feet high, which is all the protection that the 

 neighbouring downs receive from the devastating north-west storms. 

 Altogether it is not more than a hundred paces in circuit. The wood 

 is quite stunted, yet it is, for such a neighbourhood, a very interesting 

 spot; and for me it became still more so when I myself met with the 

 Scarlet Bullfinch, which I had never seen before in its free state. 

 The male came to within fifteen paces, into a thorn bush, and sang. 

 It allowed itself to be observed freely, without any marks of fear. 

 The female was not to be seen, nor the young, which had already 

 (June 7th.) left the nest. The old decoy man, who chiefly dwelt 

 there, knew of the nest, and took me to it, assuring me that these 

 birds had for many years bred there, and that they were not rare in 



