Letters, E.v tracts, A'uticcs, &;f. 517 



SiRSj — All Ivory Gull [Pugophila eburnea) was obtained on 

 or about the 7th of February 1901, at Weston-by-Weedou, 

 Northamptonshire, where it was found in a ditch by a dog 

 and was shot as it rose. It is in immature plumage, and 

 has the face grey, black marks on the wings, ami a blackish 

 bar on the end of the tail. 



Yours &c., 



O. V. Aplin, 



Bloxham, Oxou, 



(!tb May, 1901. 



SiKS, — On the 10th of May 1901, when Mr. Gregory Haines 

 and I were on the top of one of the highest mountains in 

 Merionethshire, on which some patches of snow stilllingered, 

 we saw four Dotterels [Eudromias morintllus). They were 

 running about on a slope of very short herbage thickly 

 scattered over with large stones, and were wonderfully tame, 

 letting us come within ten yards of them. We might easily 

 have overlooked them had not their rarely uttered low twit- 

 tering whistle close at hand attracted our attention. They 

 ran before us, keeping not more than ten yards ahead, occa- 

 sionally stopping to pick up food, to chase one another, 

 either in play or angei', or to stretch out a wing in charac- 

 teristic fashion, until they arrived at the edge of a baud of 

 large rounded boulders, about fifteen yards wide, wev which 

 they seemed unwilling to run. There they, stopped and 

 faced us, and as we walked to within four paces of them and 

 stood and discussed their beauty, gave us one of the greatest 

 treats in the way of bird-life we had ever enjoyed ; every 

 detail of the Dotterels' plumage and the expression and 

 glitter of their eyes were plain to us. In a few minutes 

 the little birds rose, flew quickly over the boulders, and 

 settled immediately on the other side, where we left them, 

 hoping that, despite the bitter culd, which almost froze our 

 lingers, one of these alpine slopes might tempt them to 

 stay and breed. Two of the birds were in the finest of 

 plumage ; one was duller and lighter, and had broad yellowish 

 feather-edgings; the fourth was intermediate between the 

 two stages. The Dotterel might easily escape notice on soms 



