RETROSPECT. 



353 



as the whitethroat, living in perfect harmony with its own species, and 

 with every other bird. This species may very easily be recognised 

 when wild, amongst the furze, by its restless activity, and by its 

 very dark colour ; appearing, as it Hies, considerably darker than 

 even the common dunnock (Accentor modular is). 



I may as well here avail myself of this opportunity, to correct a 

 variety of errors, &c, which have occurred in the course of my several 

 papers in the Field Naturalist's Magazine. In the No. for January, 

 at p. 22, line 28, instead of " back," read barb ; and the preceding 

 passage on the feathers of the stonechat's back should be erased ; for 

 although, in the specimen from which the remark was inconsider- 

 ately drawn, the fact was as there represented, the contrary is the case 

 with regard to the species generally. 



No. for February, p. 78, line 26, for "pallets," read pellets. A 

 flusher, in this neighbourhood, was lately seen to seize an adult cock 

 chaffinch; but, on the sudden approach of my informant, was compelled 

 to relinquish his victim. 



See No. for March, p. 130. Two instances have come to my know- 

 ledge this season of the grosbeak or hawfinch, (Coccothraustes cratcegi) 

 breeding in this country. There is, at the present time (July 10,) 

 a brood of young hawfinches flying in the garden of one of my neigh- 

 bours, one of which has been shot for my collection. The nestling 

 plumage of these birds is worthy of remark ; there is a strong tinge of 

 yellow about the head and throat ; the rump and all the under parts 

 are of a brownish cream colour, with a number of small, transverse, 

 dark brown spots on the belly and flanks, not much unlike those on a 

 hen missel thrush (Tnrdns viscivorus) ; a small line of similar spots 

 proceeds downwards, from each corner of the mouth, and curving 

 slightly inwards, traces the outline of what in the adult bird is a large 

 black spot, and the wing is without the ash-coloured cross-band which 

 distinguishes the species when in full plumage, This bird is described 

 as " subject to great variety of plumage," but the variation is, I suspect, 

 subject to fixed laws, and indicative of the age of the individual. As 

 in the babillard (Ficedula garrnla), it is probably two years, or more, 

 before the iris of the eye becomes perfectly white ; and I have observed 

 that individuals which want the ash-coloured cross-band on the wing, 

 have always the iris more or less coloured. Many birds (but not all, 

 as the jackdaw for instance,) do not change the wing and tail feathers 

 until the second moult, and this is probably the case with the hawfinch, 

 which consequently does not assume the band on the wing until its 



