Notes

Abstract

A MOST attractive group of birds has just been, placed by Prof. Flower in the great hall of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. The case is intended to illustrate the hybridisation of species in a state of nature, and the species selected are the hooded and carrion crows (Corvus conix and C. corone) and the European and Asiatic goldfinches (Carduelis clegans and C. orientalis). The series of these birds has been presented to the Museum by Mr. Henry Seebohm, who procured the specimens himself during his travels in Siberia. The case of the crows is one of the few instances known of actual wild hybridisation, though many more are suspected, especially among the game birds. It is certain, however, that wherever the colonies of hooded crows meet the carrion crow throughout the Palæarctic region the two species interbreed freely, and the result is shown in the young, the gray saddle-back of the hooded crow exhibiting a considerable admixture of black owing to the strain of C. corone in the parentage. The case of the goldfinches is not quite so completely proved, but is apparently a parallel instance of hybridisation. The British Museum has been for some time indebted to Mr. Seebohm for very valuable presents of birds, which have been mounted in the bird-galleries. Not long ago he gave a specimen of Ross's gull (Rhodostethia rossi), one of the rarest of the Laridæ, and a species which was a desideratum to the national collection. He presented also, last year, a fine case of Steller's sea-eagle (Haliaëtus pelagicus) from Kamchatka.