years ago, and I had a photograph taken of it, which is now before me. It was a female bird, of a greenish yellow colour and in moult. The only objection which has been raised to its authenticity is the odd place where it was said to have been killed—viz. Bill Quay, near Newcastle. I do not know the locality myself, but we are accustomed to think of a "Quay" as a place where foreign birds are sold in cages. It is just possible that this Pine Grosbeak may have been a caged importation, in which case it might very well have been got there, though not shot there.[1] I have a note that, according to another account, it was obtained at Coble Dene, near Shields, but I have unfortunately mislaid the reference, and I have quite forgotten now what my authority for that change in the locality was.
6. It seems just possible that the flight of Pine Grosbeaks recorded in Paget's 'Natural History of Yarmouth' (p. 6), as having "been seen on the Denes, Nov. 1822," may have been confounded in some way with the Hawfinches, a large flight of which are stated by the same author to have appeared in the January following. We are not informed that any were captured; only a flight of them "seen," by whom is not stated; but a person not well acquainted with birds, might perhaps mistake a flock of Hawfinches for Pine Grosbeaks.
7. In Lubbock's 'Fauna of Norfolk' it is remarked (p. 36) that "a pair of the Pine Grosbeak (Loxia enucleator) are now preserved in Yarmouth, shot near that place, and which are said to have had a nest, which unfortunately was destroyed." This I have no doubt is the same pair and nest alluded to in Gurney and Fisher's 'Catalogue of Norfolk Birds' (p. 21) as occurring at Raveningham, near Yarmouth. As the authors knew the late Mr. Lubbock, they in all probability communicated with him on this subject. If the Pine Grosbeak was ever a British bird, it was probably only a winter or an autumn visitant, at any rate not a summer one, and it seems impossible to believe that it could ever have nested in Norfolk.
8. In September, 1694, according to a statement in Fox's 'Synopsis of the Newcastle Museum' (pp. 65, 101), a flock of about a hundred birds visited a hemp-yard in Pembrokeshire, and destroyed all the hemp-seed. They were so tame, or intent on their feeding "that, being forced from their places, they would
- ↑ Mr. Selby, in the Catalogue referred to, says that the bird "was shot."—Ed.
