SHIRLEY. 
This very beautiful bird was first figured and 
described by Edwards, in the second volume of 
his Natural History of Birds, ur.der the name 
of the Greater Bulifmch. Being," says he, 
" at a loss to find a name for this bird — not 
knowing it's country — I at length pitched on 
that of the Greater Bullfinch ; it resembling 
the Bullfinch something in the thickness of it's 
bill, and the colour of it's throat and breast." 
Afterwards, in the last volume of his Glean- 
ings, he again figures and describes it, under 
the appellation of the Shirley ; for which he 
assigns the following reasons — - 
This bird," says Edwards, *' is already 
figured in my History of Birds', But, as the 
original of that v/as in a decaying state, and 
fixed in a glass-case with other curiosities, -so 
that it could not be taken out, some marks 
about it were unobserved, which will be de- 
scribed in this; whose description differs from 
the former ia some little p?.rticulars, as will 
generally 
