384 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



the coasts and do not split up into pairs. Based upon the 

 above data I have elsewhere put forward the hypothesis that 

 the birds were immature (vide ' Naturalist/ 1909, pp. 84, 85). 

 Here I hope further to strengthen this hypothesis by direct 

 objective evidence obtained from an examination of the 

 plumage-markings. The rich variegated markings of chest- 

 nut, brown, and black, which appear on the head, neck, 

 breast, back, and wings, are found in the summer plumage 

 in Sanderlings in all ages, after the first winter plumage. 

 It is generally known as the nuptial plumage. When, how- 

 ever, the tertials of those birds which tarry with us till late 

 June, July, and the beginning of August are examined, it may 

 be noticed that they, like the tertials of the first winter 

 plumage, are relatively short, the longest not reaching to the 

 tip of the fourth primary feather, the wing being folded in 

 the natural position. By far the majority of Sanderlings 

 which I have collected in late spring and summer have short 

 tertials, and to such plumage I give the name of pre-nuptial, 

 from its close resemblance to the true nuptial plumage which 

 it precedes. But a few specimens collected towards the end 

 of April and in early May, from small flocks, shewed on 

 examination to have longer tertials which reached halfway 

 between the tip of the fourth and third primary , and in some 

 cases almost to the tip of the third primary. Such birds, I 

 believe, have assumed the adult nuptial plumage of the second 

 or subsequent springs. This plumage follows the plumage 

 of the second or subsequent winters, in which the long ashy- 

 grey tertials are easily distinguishable from the darker 

 shorter ones of the first winter plumage. 



The Annual General Meeting of the B. 0. U. — We are 

 requested by the Secretary to state that the Annual General 

 Meeting, for 1910, of the British Ornithologists'' Union will 

 be held at the Zoological Society's Offices, 3 Hanover Square 

 (by permission), on Wednesday, May 25th, at 5.30 p.m. The 

 usual dinner after the meeting will take place, in conjunction 

 with the monthly meeting of the British Ornithologists' 

 Club, at Pagani's Restaurant, 42 Great Portland Street, 

 at 7 p.m. 



