492 Letters, Announceinents , !^c. 



species [Graadus africanus) , recorded iu the present volume 

 of 'The Ibis' {antea, p. 354), should stand as 282, instead 

 of 221. 



Yours &c., 



J. H. GURNEY, 



Sirs, — There is a peculiar white stage of plumage in which 

 the Glaucous Gull is not unfrequently found, which, while 

 from time to time it has attracted a good deal of notice, has 

 never received a satisfactory solution. It is a stage at which 

 the bird is wholly white or, to speak more correctly, a very 

 light cream-colour. The idea that it is the garb of extreme 

 old age is dismissed ; but there can be no doubt, I think, that 

 it is a state which most Glaucous Gulls assume, and at no 

 very juvenile time of their lives. Some time ago I saw at 

 Bridlington a Glaucous Gull which was to me very inter- 

 esting; for the mantle of grey was blotched with white in 

 large patches, showing that it Avas passing from the white 

 stage to the normal adult colour; at least so it seemed to me 

 after examiniyg it as well as I could through the glass of 

 the case. This bird had been kept alive, and, what was very 

 remarkable about it, its eye was as Avhite as a Jackdaw's. 



If it be a law that the pure white phase of the Glaucous 

 Gull is a phase which most individuals have to pass through, 

 it is not unlikely that the same holds good of the Iceland Gull, 

 a species so closely approximate that many good naturalists 

 are puzzled to distinguish a large specimen of the one sort 

 from a small one of the other. I have seen two pure white 

 Iceland Gulls which, from their small size, I am sure were 

 Icelanders, and not Glaucous Gulls. 



Yours &c., 



J. H. GuRNEY, Jun. 



Northrepps Cottage, Norwich. 



June 23, 1877. 

 Sirs, — During a recent visit to Malaga I saw two live 

 Trumpeter Bullfinches [Erythrospiza rfithagineo), both ap- 



