PREFACE. Vll 



after a dispassionate consideration of the facts narrated by the several 

 correspondents to whose communications I shall refer, and I hope 

 that in every instance the reader will form his own opinion, unin- 

 fluenced by mine. 



Mr. Cater announces (Zool. 2391) that two specimens of the Minor 

 Grackle (Gracula religiosa) had been seen on the coast of Norfolk, 

 and that one of these had been shot, and formed part of his collection. 

 Knowing this bird to be a native of Tndia, and never having heard of 

 its occurrence in England, I ventured, in an editorial note, to suggest 

 that the pair had escaped from an aviary. In contravention of this 

 suggestion, Mr. Cater subsequently urges (Zool. 2496) that there were 

 a pair, and not a single bird ; that they were first observed within a 

 hundred yards of the sea; that the birds were evidently exhausted, as 

 if with a flight across the sea; and that no aviary likely to contain 

 such birds exists within twenty miles of the spot where they were 

 seen. 



A specimen of the Greater Northern Shrike (Lanias borealis) has 

 been shot at Aberdeen, at the commencement of the present year, as 

 recorded (Zool. 2495) by the Rev. James Smith. Professor Macgil- 

 livray, who determined the species, observed, at a meeting of natural- 

 ists in Aberdeen, that he believed this to be the first and only instance 

 of this North- American bird having been noticed in Britain, or even 

 in Europe. In this, however, I believe this learned ornithologist is 

 mistaken, as several other instances of its occurrence have come to 

 my knowledge since the publication of Mr. Smith's paper. Copious 

 information on the subject, together with one or more carefully en- 

 graved figures, will appear in an early number of the ' Zoologist.' 



A bird has re-appeared which fifty years ago passed current as Bri- 

 tish, but which has been almost unanimously rejected by later authors. 

 To use the words of a correspondent, " Mr. Yarrell altogether ignores 

 it, and other modern ornithologists only mention the reports for the 

 purpose of doubting them." I allude to the Hairy Woodpecker (Picas 

 villosus). Lewin gives this bird as British on the authority of a Mr. 

 Bolton, who met with it at Halifax ; but subsequent authors have 

 suggested that Halifax in Nova Scotia, and not Halifax in Yorkshire, 



