114 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



do not, in the least, question the accuracy of those who maintain 

 that this Gull diets itself on young fry when it can get them ; 

 Larus fuscus is far from guiltless in that respect, but I believe that 

 even this rapacious bird prefers a small crab or the entrails of any 

 animal to small fish. The habits of most birds vary in different 

 districts. In some parts of the country the Rook (Corvus frugilegus) 

 is asserted to do more good than injury to the farmers. In my 

 present neighbourhood, it frequently taxes a farmer to the extent of 

 ^20 in a season, by the havoc which it wreaks upon his turnip 

 crop. Another misdeed of the Rook is that it attacks stacks of 

 grain, and not only draws out quantities of corn for its own 

 consumption, but also allows rain to enter the stack through the 

 holes which it has driven in the top of the stack. It is easy to 

 understand that the Brown-headed Gull may damage the interests 

 of anglers in certain districts ; especially in situations in which insect 

 life is scantily represented. H. A. MACPHERSON, Allonby. 



Iceland Gull near the Solway Firth. On the loth of February 

 1899, a stormy day with strong westerly winds, my friend Mr. R. 

 Mann was driving along the coast near Maryport, when he observed 

 a single Iceland Gull flying over a meadow near the sea. He 

 stopped his horse and watched the bird very closely. It was in 

 creamy immature dress, and conspicuous among the Herring Gulls 

 to which it had joined company. Another specimen of this Arctic 

 Gull was shot in a field about two miles from Carlisle, on the 28th 

 of February 1898. I did not see the bird in question until a day 

 or two later, when it was already mounted ; it was a white bird, 

 mottled with pale brown, but much lighter in coloration than a 

 bird of the first year. I had not the good fortune to secure this 

 bird for the Carlisle Museum, as it belonged to a keen local 

 collector. The Carlisle Museum contains only a single Lakeland 

 specimen of this Larus, and that is immature. I cannot say that 

 either the present species or Larus glaucus occur with any frequency 

 on the coast of the Solway Firth. I live with a telescope in my 

 window and a field-glass in my hand ; but some years have elapsed 

 since I last had the privilege of identifying any of our rarer Gulls in 

 life. H. A. MACPHERSON, Allonby, Cumberland. 



Note on the Moulting of the Flight Feathers in the Divers. 



I believe it has been hitherto unrecorded that any of the Divers 

 (Colymbus) moult the flight feathers en masse, thus losing all power 

 of flight for the time. It is, of course, well known as regards the 

 Ducks, and has been recorded of sundry other birds Moorhen 

 and Land Rail, for instance. At the end of September and 

 beginning of October 1898 I had, at intervals, several Red-throated 

 Divers (C. septentrionalis) sent in. The adults were in all stages 

 of the "moult"; the majority being entirely devoid of flight 



