184 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
to the Society one in my possession, taken near Dumbarton. 
(Proc. vol. i. p. 242.) 
i 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 lohatus {Grej VhalsiYoiiQ) , 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 Bomhycilla garrula, 
the Bohemian Waxwing, at Kosebank House, near Wick, 
