184 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



to the Society one in my possession, taken near Dumbarton. 

 (Proc. vol. i. p. 242.) 



The next birds exhibited were also from the same locality. 



11. Loxia curvirostra — the Common Crossbill. Two 

 young birds or females, also shot at Ballindalloch in the 

 beginning of March. These birds visit Britain in flocks at 

 uncertain intervals, and occasionally breed in this country. 



In conclusion, I exhibit an example of one of those 

 strange changes in the colour of the plumage which occur in 

 birds : in this instance, in the 



12. Alauda arvensis — the Sky-Lark, a black variety. It 

 was caught near Granton, about two years ago, in company 

 with a number of other larks, and its plumage at the time 

 was noticed to be rather darker than the others. The birds 

 were all kept together in a large cage and supplied with the 

 same food, canary seed and pease-meal, — no hemp seed, 

 which has been supposed to favour this change of plumage, 

 having been given to them ; this specimen alone gradually 

 became at its moulting quite black in its plumage, in the 

 course of about twelve months. 



Some white varieties of this bird have also been noticed ; 

 one is now exhibited from the University Museum, to which 

 it was presented by Dr Sidey, who has also kindly sent this 

 black one for exhibition. The black variety is considered 

 to be the result of disease, perhaps also of diet, and has 

 apparently occurred principally in birds kept confined in 

 cages, and not in their wild state. 



I am indebted to Mr Sanderson and to Mr Small, bird- 

 stuffers, George Street, for many of the other birds ex- 

 hibited. 



13. Phalaropus lobatus (Grey Phalarope). Two specimens 

 of this bird were shot in Caithness- shire in October 1863, one 

 having been killed in Wick Bay on the 7th, and the other 

 near the South Head, by Mr W. Peach, on the 19th. This 

 is the first time this bird has been observed in the county of 

 Caithness. 



Mr Henry Osborne, Wick, has since informed me of the 

 appearance in Caithness-shire of the Bombycilla garrula> 

 the Bohemian Waxwing, at Boscbank House, near Wick, 



