Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/273

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ON THE PINE GROSBEAK.
247

Although the evidence about it is very incomplete, it is the best authenticated specimen I know of. Yarrell (Brit. Birds, ii. p. 9) tells us that it was shot some years prior to 1839 at Harrow-on-the-Hill; while Fox (op. cit., p. 65), apparently referring to the same bird, speaks of it as shot at Wellwyn, in the adjoining county of Hertford. So good a naturalist as Yarrell appears to have been satisfied of its authenticity, and in the absence of any further evidence, one must accept his testimony.

13. In 'The Zoologist' for 1845 (p. 1025) the Rev. H. Clark states that he had a Pine Grosbeak which was killed "in a fir-plantation near Rochdale, Lancashire," in February, 1845. Mr. Bond has kindly informed me that he saw it several times, that it was a male bird, and that after Mr. Clark's death it was sold to a dealer. Mr. Clark being dead, it is now too late to obtain any further information about it.

14. In Knox's 'Ornithological Rambles in Sussex' (p. 211), two Pine Grosbeaks are stated to have been killed in Ashdown Forest in February, 1848. Although it was believed at the time that they had been killed as stated, Mr. Knox informs me, by letter, that he now almost begins to doubt them.

15. The same naturalist has recorded (l.c.) that another Pine Grosbeak was killed at Petworth. At this distance of time no further evidence is procurable.

16. In 1850 a Pine Grosbeak was seen at Corrymulzie, Bræmar, N.B., by the late Prof. Macgillivray, who, however, writes very cautiously and guardedly about it in his 'Natural History of Deeside and Bræmar' (p. 403).

17. The seventeenth reported occurrence is a mere name in the 'Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archæological Society,' in Mr. Baker's Catalogue of the Fauna of that county. I applied to that gentleman's grandson to know if he could tell me what ground there was for including it, and he has obligingly informed me that it appears from his grandfather's papers that it was met with by Mr. Anstice, of Bridgwater, and also by the late Mr. Govett. As against this, I may remark that Mr. Anstice would most likely have communicated such an important fact to his friend Colonel Montagu for his 'Ornithological Dictionary,' who, however, has made no mention of it.

18. In a note on the occurrence of rare birds near Kingsbridge (Zool. 3474), Mr. Charles Prideaux states that a Pine Grosbeak