20 PYBBIIVLINzE. 



isabelle yellow, which Dr. Bolle says Degland wrongly ascribes to 

 the female. This colour goes downwards from the throat without any 

 streaks, and gradually blends into whitish; there is no trace of red^ 

 not even on the almost isabelle yellow tint. The under tail coverts 

 are yellowish; greater and lesser wing coverts, wings, and tail have 

 a darkish brown colour, with a speckled grey yellow on both edges; 

 beak and feet flesh-colour. — (Bolle.) 



My figure of this bird is from a male in my own collection. It 

 was sent to me by Dr. Leith Adams, and was killed in December at 

 Malta. The e2,g is from a specimen sent me by the E.ev. Canon 

 Tristram. 



The bird has also been figured by Temminck et Laugier, planche 

 color, 400, figs. 1 and 2j Roux, Ornith. Prov., vol. i., supp. plate 73, 

 bis, young male in autumn plumage; Gould, B. of E., pi. 208; Bona- 

 j)arte, Lox., t. 33. 



The following have been by various authors admitted into the 

 European list of Pyrrhulince : — 



1. — Pyrrhula coccinea, Selys. — The Greater Bullfinch, {Bouvreuil 

 jJOJiceau of the French,) differs in nothing whatever from the Common 

 Bullfinch except in size, and having rather more white on the rump, 

 and the band of this colour across the wings being rather broader. 

 We are informed by Dubois (Oiseaux de la Belgique, p. 125,) that 

 it never mixes with the common species. It was first introduced as 

 a distinct race by Vieillot, Diet., 1817, and after by M. le Baron 

 Selys-Longchamps, in his "Faune Beige." Schlegel, however, in his 

 " Bevue Critique," 1844, declined to admit it as a distinct species, 

 having never seen it in nature. De Selys himself only considered it 

 as a local race of the Common Bullfinch, Degland admits it into his 

 " Ornithologie Europeenne," with the following remarks: — ^'The size 

 of the Bouvreuil ponceau is constantly larger than that of the common 

 species; there is a difference in the proportions of their wing pri- 

 maries, in the strength of their note, and it is certain that they 

 always flock separately." 



Bonaparte, who admits it into his '^Conspectus Avium Europsearum," 

 1850, and in his "Critique," p. 27, makes the following remarks about 

 it: — "I would not answer for this not being in reality a constant race 

 or species, evidently that which Graba would have represented in his 

 work upon northern birds." 



Lastly, Dubois admits it as a distinct species, under the designation 

 of Pyrrhula coccinea, Leisler, and remarks upon it:— "This bird is in 



