suggestion of a friend, and send the result of my investigations to the present time for publication in 'The Zoologist.'
Mr. Harting, in his 'Handbook of British Birds' (p. 113), has given a list of nearly all the reported occurrences of the Pine Grosbeak in Great Britain, collected from various sources,[1] and one would suppose at first sight, from his long category, that there could be no doubt about the claim of this bird to be regarded as British. Many species, indeed, in that work have appended to their names far shorter lists of recorded occurrences, and have never been suspected to be interlopers. But on examining the list of Pine Grosbeaks, we perceive on what slender evidence a great many of them have been introduced. I think I cannot do better than follow Mr. Harting, and taking them seriatim as he gives them, state as fairly as I can the pros and cons in regard to each.
1. The Pine Grosbeak appears to have been first introduced into the list of British Birds by Thomas Pennant, the well-known author of the 'British Zoology.' In that work (4th ed., vol. i., p. 317) he says, "I have seen them flying above the great pine forests of Invercauld, in Aberdeenshire; and I imagine they breed there, for I saw them on the 5th of August." He adds that one that he "saw in Scotland and believed to be a female was (like the female Crossbill) of a dirty green, the tail and quill-feathers dusky." Nothing has ever transpired to make us doubt the correctness of Pennant's identification of the species, which he has accurately described, except the rather significant fact that none are known with certainty to have been seen in Scotland since. This of itself, however, is not sufficient proof that the bird was not once found there.
2. In a catalogue of the rarer birds met with in the parish of Kirkmichael, in Dumfriesshire, by Dr. Burgess, published about 1792, the Pine Grosbeak is included; but Dr. Burgess' name is unknown to ornithologists, and what weight may be attached to his authority in the matter it is impossible to say. Professor Newton informs me that Kirkmichael is close to Jardine Hall, but that Sir William Jardine (who, as every one knows, was a very good naturalist), in writing on the fauna of Dumfriesshire, in the 'New Statistical Account of Scotland,' makes no mention of the Pine Grosbeak. Mr. Robert Gray, who I believe first drew attention to
- ↑ One or two others which were unknown to him at the date of his publication will be found mentioned at the end of this paper.
