286 Queries and Answers* 



banks of the Guadalquivir river, which runs near Seville (if I 

 recollect rightly, Seville is about 80 miles from Cadiz) ; they 

 added, that it was generally supposed these birds breed in the 

 sandy inaccessible islets at the mouth of the Rhone. In the 

 month of July of the same year, I was at Aries, far down 

 towards the mouths of that river, and there I heard the same 

 account : they are not, however, seen near that place. Per- 

 haps some reader of this Magazine may favour you with a 

 more perfect and satisfactory account of this interesting sub- 

 ject, as' I consider it, and inform you if flamingoes are ever 

 seen in the long range of coast intermediate between the Rhone 

 and the Guadalquivir. I have visited many parts of it, and 

 never saw or heard of them: "where from, and where going, seem 

 the extraordinary points in the circumstances. I was at Tan- 

 gier and Tetuan, in Barbary, in the month of January of the 

 same year, and neither saw nor heard of them ; and being, at 

 that time, a zealous collector in ornithology, I did not fail to 

 make enquiries on all subjects connected with that point. I 

 submit these observations, with diffidence, to more experienced 

 heads. I am, Sir, yours, &c. — H. B. Blois, Nov. 9. 1832. 



The White-bellied Swift (Cypsehis alpinus Temminck) shot in 

 Norfolk. — Sir, The following notice has been communicated 

 to me, and I forward it to you, in the prospect of its proving 

 interesting to your readers : — " About the middle of Sep- 

 tember, 1831, a bird was shot near New Buckenham church, 

 Norfolk, of the swift kind, but larger, and of a lighter colour, 

 and having the belly as well as the throat white ; the neck 

 and upper part of the breast have a collar of grey brown ra- 

 ther darker than the head and back. The bird was stuffed, 

 and is now in the possession of a gentleman at Old Buck- 

 enham ; and, judging from the bulk of the bird, now it is 

 stuffed, it must have weighed, at least, twice as much as our 

 common swift. Its length is rather more than 8 in., and the 

 breadth, from point to point of the expanded wings, 20 in. : 

 they have a copper-coloured reflection in one light, and a 

 green one in another. Its general colour is a dusky black, 

 with the edges of the feathers paler; the quill feathers re- 

 markably strong and pointed, darker than the back, and 

 having a faint shot green cast : the tail consists of exactly ten 

 feathers ; the legs are stout, and feathered down to the toes, 

 which are flesh-coloured. Is this the i/irundo Melba and 

 alpinus of Linnaeus, &c. ?" — Daniel Stock. Bungay, Jidy 2. 

 1832. 



The swift described is, without doubt, the -Hirundo alpinus, 

 L., Le martinet a ventre blanc of French authors, and the 

 Cypselus alpinus of Temminck. It is figured on the same plate 

 with the common swift (Cypselus murarius Temminck) in 



