382 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 
nees (no. 655, fig. 2), as la bonscarle de Provence. Upon this 
figure Gmelin founded his Motacilla sylvia, var. 7 . Curruca 
fulvescens, in 1788. Ornithologieal law does not, how¬ 
ever, recognize the varieties of Gmelin; and we pass on to 
1820, where we find our bird reappearing as Sylvia cetti of La 
Marmora. In 1829 the genus Potamodus was established by 
Kaup; and Celtics Warbler has sometimes appeared Pota¬ 
modus cetti (Marm.). This latter genus, however, was founded 
upon Sylvia fluviatilis, by which Kaup doubtless meant an 
Acrocephalus or a Locustella, Bonaparte was the first to esta¬ 
blish a separate genus expressly for Sylvia cetti ; and he having 
raised the specific name into a generic one, we are again 
driven elsewhere to find the second oldest name. This appears 
to be Sylvia sericea (Natt.) apud Temm. (Man. d^Orn. i. 
p. 197) j so that our bird appears in Bonaparte^s ^ Birds of 
Europe and North America^ (P-1^) Cettia sericea (Natt.)— 
a name to which it appears to be entitled with the alteration 
in the authority to ^^(Temm.),^^ no publication of the name 
by Natterer himself having taken place. 
Yours &c. 
Henry Seebohm. 
Braiikston Grange, Culross, N.B., 
loth May, 1878. 
Sirs, —I beg to send you the following notice of three recent 
occurrences of the Stockdove [Columba cenas) in Scotland, one 
in Stirlingshire, and the other two in this neighbourhood 
(Southern Perthshire), which may be interesting to the readers 
of ^ The Ibis,^ as only two instances of its occurrence north of 
the Tweed have hitherto been recorded, one of which is ex¬ 
tremely doubtful (for both, vide Gray^s ^ Birds of the West of 
Scotland,^ p. 219). 
The first of these specimens I have now to record was shot 
on 20 th March last, as it flew from a tree close to Alva House, 
Stirlingshire. It was sent for preservation by the game- 
keeper who shot it j but the sex was not ascertained. 
The second bird, a female, was shot on 25th March, on the 
estate of Tulliallan, adjoining this one (Westgrange), by a 
