290 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



paces of me for a piece of bread. I dare say they would 

 take it from the hand if the Ducks did not drive them 

 about. 



White Gulls. 



At p. 97S4 of the " Zoologist," a description is given of a 

 White Gull shot at Lytham, and I should like to offer a 

 few remarks upon it, as the bird has since passed into my 

 possession. It is not correct to speak of it as pure white, 

 for there are some dark feathers on the occiput, and on the 

 underparts faint remains of the broccoli-brown, which charac- 

 terises the immature plumage of the Glaucous Gull, and 

 that the recorder was correct in referring it to that species I 

 have little doubt, but I do not at all agree in his conclusion 

 that it must be a very old one. I should rather judge it to 

 be in the intermediate stage between old age and imma- 

 turity. Although he says he has never seen or heard of 

 one, there are such things as albino Gulls. My father 

 possessed two, and in each of them I discovered a dark 

 feather on careful examination, which proved to me that 

 they were not the Glaucous. 



Greater Whitethroat. 



It is well known that the autumn plumage is different 

 from the spring. Among other points is the head, which 

 turns from brown to grey, but it would appear that some 

 carry the brown head — like certain cock Blackcaps — into 

 the ensuing spring, for a female sent from Cromer light- 

 house, which it had flown against, in May, 1872, was in that 

 state of plumage. Of course I am well aware that there 

 are numerous instances of other birds which should in the 

 normal course of thing, be adult by Christmas, carrying 

 their immaturity into the spring succeeding, and I think all 



