Letters , Announcements , tyc. 257 
Without giving his other measurements, these will be 
enough to show the proportions of the two forms. As re¬ 
gards the difference in colouring, that is easily stated. Both 
races assume in spring a grey back, a white forehead and 
eye-streak, and a darker wing ; but while the smaller race 
changes from a reddish buff on the lower surface to pale 
yellow-buff on the throat and breast, and whitish on the ab¬ 
domen, the larger race retains the deep reddish buff on the 
throat and breast, and if there is any difference between the 
autumn and spring colouring of these parts, it is that there 
is a richer glow of red about them in spring than in autumn. 
It is clear therefore that, independently of size, the rich 
reddish throat of the larger bird distinguishes it at once from 
the paler bird. 
It remains to say what little I know of the separate range 
and migration of this large race. It is soon told. I know 
nothing of the bird's occurrence west of Sussex; but it cer¬ 
tainly appears every May on the shores of Sussex and Kent, 
and also on the opposite shores of the Continent (see SchlegePs 
f Birds of Europe'). Schlegel says it appears “ in the month 
of May." Gould obtained two specimens from Dungeness 
on May 9. My brother, Mr. Ivo Bligh, shot one in Cobh am 
Park, near Gravesend, on May 1st. This last specimen agrees 
exactly in size and colour with Gould's life-size figure, and 
also with specimens at Swaysland's, the Brighton bird- 
preserver's. 
On the whole, therefore, I am unable to see why such a 
distinctly large race, that retains a red breast in summer, and 
arrives on our south-east coast in May instead of March, 
should not be as worthy of recognition as the large brightly 
coloured Bullfinch of Eastern Europe. 
Yours &c., 
Clifton. 
Northrepps, Norwich, 
20th March, 1877. 
Sirs, —In f The Ibis ' for 1860, p. 171, for 1862, p. 207, for 
1873, p. 324,1 recorded the laying of a series of eggs in confine- 
