8766 



Birds. 



The Redwing singing in England. — I see in one of your interesting chapters on 

 British Birds, inserted in 'Young' England' for July last, page 106, that you have 

 committed an error in stating that the redwing is not known to sing in England. Last 

 February I heard a bird singing near the top of a larch fir in this neighbourhood, 

 which I supposed was a thrush ; but on shooting it (in the act of singing) I found, to 

 my surprise, that it was a redwing. Soon afterwards I heard another singing 

 among the topmost branches of a beech tree, which I shot, and it proved to be a red- 

 wing also. I heard several others singing that same evening, and in fact all through- 

 out the month, but I had always taken them for thrushes, until curiosity prompted me 

 to shoot two of them, and then it was that I found out my mistake. I am quite sure 

 of both skins — one of which I have still in my possession— being redwings ; and if you 

 have any doubt on the subject I shall be most happy to send you the skin for exami- 

 nation. — Joseph J. Armistead ; Queenwood College, Stockbridge, Hants, August 20. 



[I shall be pleased to see the skin when opportunity offers. — Edward Newman^] 



Occurrence of the Alpine Accentor in Yorkshire. — On the 22nd of August, at Mr. 

 Roberts', birdstuffer, Scarborough, I saw a fine female specimen of the Alpine accentor, 

 which had been shot near Scarborough. Last winter (LS62— 3) a poor man offered 

 for sale to Mr. Roberts a string of larks and small birds he had shot. Mr. R. bought 

 them, and found this bird amongst the number. I purchased it, and it is now in my 

 collection. — W. W. Boulton ; Beverley, Yorkshire, August 31, 1863. 



Remarks on the Fringilla incerta of Risso. — Mr. George Dawson Rowley has en- 

 trusted 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 Conti- 

 nental 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 so accurately describes the present 

 example that I do not hesitate to quote it. " Femelle.— Dessus de la tete, derriere du 

 cou, 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 olivatre, avec le bord externe lisere de vert gri- 

 satre, les premieres terminees 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 subsequently says 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 in his former assignment of the 

 bird to Chlorospiza,* as he also does later, though subsequently he refers to it as the 



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

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

 genera of Birds,' p. 77. In the ' List of the Specimens of British Animals,' &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. 



