8002 



Birds. 



proportion of red birds of different shades is pretty equal to the green birds (which I 

 suppose are all females, admitting that the young males attain their red plumage at 

 the first moult, for the old yellow male can never by any chance be mistaken for the 

 female in the crossbill) ; but this is not the case with the pine grosbeaks, for out of all 

 the specimens I have obtained this winter not more than six have been red birds; all 

 the rest have been dull brown-green, more or less shaded on the head, breast and 

 rump with reddish yellow. It is not easy, at this season, to ascertain the males 

 from the females by dissection, but I was lucky enough in one or two instances 

 to do so. Still I can hardly suppose that so near a proportion of these yellow- 

 green birds can be all females; nor do I think, as far as I can judge, that any 

 of them were old males ; and from this fact I draw the inference that the pine 

 grosbeak does not attain its red plumage at the first moult, like the crossbills, or 

 else why do we meet with so few red males ? It is true that I have had but one 

 winter's experience to judge from, and shall be very pleased if any other practical 

 naturalist will give his opinion. To prove that I am not wrong in what I have 

 written, take for instance the breeding habits of the green sandpiper and the cross- 

 bills. In no work on Natural History, either British or foreign, have I ever seen 

 it noticed that this bird lays its eggs in an old deserted nest. Every one, in alluding 

 to its breeding habits, states " that the nest of this species is either in sand or on a 

 bank, or among grass by the side of a stream.'' Yet here, in a country where this bird 

 is comparatively common (so much so that I generally procure four or six nests every 

 year), I have never by any chance found the eggs otherwise than in an old nest in a 

 fir tree. And, again, in Sweden, which may be called the very hot-bed of the cross- 

 bills, no one knew anything about their breeding habits (or if they did they kept it to 

 themselves) till I set them right. — Mr. Wheelwright, of Sweden, in the ' Field' News- 

 paper, March 22, 1882. 



Occurrence of the Wild Goose near Penzance. — A specimen of the gray-lag goose 

 was shot a few days since in the marsh between this place and Marazion; and it 

 appears that over a long series of years this is the first occurrence of this species. We 

 have had, especially when heavy frosts from the North and East have driven birds to 

 southern regions, repeated visits of bean, whitefronted and brent geese, and occasion- 

 ally of bernicles ; but I never remember seeing or hearing of any wild geese making 

 their appearance in Cornwall. The character and shape of the beak, being bulkier 

 and more elevated than that of the bean goose, with its uniformity of colour and white 

 nail at the tip, are very striking at first sight ; and there appears to be a light blue 

 colour on the lesser wing-coverts and upper tail-coverts which the bean goose has not. 

 The wild goose also has a rim of naked red skin around the outline of the eyes, not 

 apparent in the other species. The bird now under notice agrees precisely with the 

 various figures, excepting that there is a narrow border of white round the base of the 

 bill, not to be confounded with the character of Anser albifrons, but rather giving one 

 an impression of an accidental variety, or of its being a bird of last summer's hatching. 

 — Edward Hearle Rodd ; Penzance, March 5, 1862. 



White Specimens of Redthroated Diver and Lapiving. — A few days since I saw a 

 fine male redthroated diver which was perfectly white, with the exception of three or 

 four feathers of a dark shade on the back ; the legs and bill while, the former with a 

 few dark markings on them. I also saw an albino of the lapwing. Mr. Wood, the 

 eminent taxidermist, of Vere Street, London, at whose shop I saw the specimens, stated 

 that the diver was shot off the Essex coast, and the lapwing in Ireland. This last bird 



