6536 



Birds. 



' Zoologist,' by Mr. Pickard-Cambridge (Zool. 64 44), I think proves it. I transcribe a note 

 from my interleaved Yarrell, writen some years ago. " I cannot help thinking that 

 there are three different specimens of this bird, as Bewick thought. I have three very 

 different from each other ; they are sometimes found in Draycot Wood, where one of 

 these specimens were shot. The largest was killed here ; the middle spotted wood- 

 pecker in Clarendon Park ; the small bird in Amesbury Park : these small birds bred 

 in Draycot Park. — George S. Marsh ; Vicarage, Sutton Berger, Chippenham. 



[My correspondent does not describe the differences of the three supposed species, 

 a very necessary prelude to their reception as distinct species. I think, moreover, 

 that Bewick cannot be cited as evidence, except as regards the illustrations of the work 

 bearing his name : he did not write the text.— Edward Newman]. 



Correction of previous Error respecting the Harlequin Duck (Anas histrionica). — I 

 beg leave to correct an error made by me in the ' Zoologist' for 1852 (Zool. 3331) in 

 a note on the " Occurrence of the Harlequin Duck in Banffshire." The specimen 

 therein mentioned was submitted to the inspection of the late Mr. Yarrell, who pro- 

 nounced it to be a young female harlequin duck, and he has mentioned it as such in 

 the last edition of his work (British Birds, 3rd edition, iii. 366) ; but I was very sorry 

 to find, shortly after the bird was given to me, that the decision of that illustrious 

 ornithologist was unfortunately wrong, and that it was only a female long-tailed duck 

 (Anas glacialis). I may add, that there can be no doubt that the bird in my possession 

 is the identical specimen seen by Mr. Yarrell.— Edward Newton ; Elveden Hall, Thet- 

 ford, March, 1859. 



Occurrence of Paget' s Pochard (Anas ferinoides), for the second time, in Norfolk. — 

 A male specimen of this rare duck, apparently in adult plumage, was killed on the 

 24th of February at Little Wareham on the.North-East Coast of Norfolk. The only 

 other example known to have been met with in this county, an immature male, was 

 obtained on Rollesby Broad (in the same neighbourhood), on the 27th of February, 

 1845. This bird was figured and described in the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 1379), by Messrs. 

 Gurneyand Fisher, in their ' Birds of Norfolk,' as a hybrid between the common 

 pochard (A.ferina) and the white-eyed pochard (A. nyroca), having very strong points 

 of resemblance to both these species ; and a long and very interesting paper on the 

 same subject by Mr. Fisher will be also found in the ' Zoologist' for 1847 (Zool. 1778). 

 By the latter communication it will be seen that the Rollesby specimen, together with 

 two other ducks of a similar character, — one purchased by Mr. Bartlett in a London 

 market in April, 1847, the other some years before in Leadenhall market, by Mr. H. 

 Doubleday, — were exhibited on the 13th of April, 1847, at the meeting of the Zoological 

 Society, when, after a careful examination and comparison of the three specimens, both 

 as to external appearance and anatomical peculiarities, it was concluded that they all 

 belonged " to a new and hitherto undescribed species." Mr. Bartlett's bird closely 

 resembled in plumage the immature male from Rollesby, but Mr. Doubleday's, also a 

 male, presented every indication of an adult state, and is, in fact, the same bird figured 

 and described in Yarrell's * British Birds 'as the American scaup (Fuligula mariloides, 

 Vigors). The scientific name of F. ferinoides as applied to these ducks by Mr. Bartlett 

 has been very generally accepted by naturalists, and that of Paget's pochard was like- 

 wise added, after the late C. J. Paget, Esq., of Great Yarmouth, a very zealous orni- 

 thologist. In ' Naumannia,' for 1852, p. 12, under the name of F. Homeyeri, a desciip- 

 tion, with illustrations, of a pair of ducks killed near Rotterdam, in April, 1 850, is given 

 by Hcrr Badeler, and on March 28, 1851, these same birds wore exhibited by Mr. 



