Dr. Burgess' Catalogue, has not been able to throw any light on the matter in his 'Birds of the West of Scotland.'
3. I have not seen Don's 'Fauna of Forfarshire,' but am indebted to Mr. Gray for the following extract from it (p. 43):—"Loxia curvirostra, the Crossbill, and enucleator, the Pine Grosbeak. These two species of Loxia have come in great numbers to the woods of Glammiss and Lindertis, and totally destroyed the whole of the larch and fir-cones for these two years past." Don's 'Fauna of Forfarshire' was published in 1813: it is now impossible to decide whether he was competent to distinguish the species named by him or not.
4. In Ireland this bird is supposed, on the vaguest testimony, to have been once obtained. The following is Thompson's account of the specimen in his 'Natural History of Ireland' (Birds), vol. i., p. 275:—"In the manuscript journal of that eminent naturalist, John Templeton, Esq., is the following note:—'December the 20th, 1819. Yesterday heard from Mr. Montgomery, of Belfast [the late Mr. John Montgomery, of Locust Lodge] that Mr. Bradford [a pump-maker] had received a specimen of Loxia enucleator, which was shot at the Cave Hill [vicinity of Belfast], and on showing [him] the figure in the 'Naturalists Miscellany,' he recognized it to be the bird.'" Mr. John Templeton died in 1827: ten years afterwards his son published a list of Irish Vertebrates, from materials found amongst his papers (Mag. of Nat. Hist., n.s., vol. i. p. 403), in which the Pine Grosbeak is mentioned as "a doubtful native," but no particulars are given of the specimen which was shot by Mr. Bradford at Cave Hill. I am told that the figure of the Pine Grosbeak in the 'Naturalists Miscellany' is a gaudy red picture. I have not seen the work lately, but, if I remember right, many of its plates might puzzle a better naturalist than Mr. Bradford, and I should be inclined to discredit his identification, if for no other reason than that he professed to have recognised the species from such a bad figure.
5. In Selby's "Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and Durham" (Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Northumb., 1831, p. 265) that author writes:—"Strobilophaga enucleator. Pine Grosbeak. A specimen of this rare British species, now in the possession of Mr. Anthony Clapham, was shot at Bill Quay, near Newcastle." This bird passed from Mr. Clapham to the late Mr. W. Backhouse, and is now in the possession of his son. It was lent to me some
