294 BRITISH BIRDS. 



of determining the truth or otherwise of certain complaints 

 made to the Council, more especially the eating of grain by the 

 Gull during sowing time. The matters complained of were 

 found to exist ..." And they continue : " We have seen 500 or 

 600 Black-headed Gulls in one field, feeding on the corn as it 

 fell from the hands of the sower . . ." Yet no mention of 

 this fact is made in their report I On the contrary, they 

 remark (page 4) : "With regard to the complaint laid before 

 you by farmers in the Bowness-on-Solway district, we have 

 taken special pains to investigate the matter, and find that 

 the damage complained of is not great, that it extends over 

 a period of two or three weeks during the sowing season, and 

 only while the grain is actually being sown by those farmers 

 who sow broadcast. Those who use the 'drill' for sowing 

 do not complain, and it appears that if the grain is covered 

 immediately little or no damage is done, as the bird does not 

 uncover the grain " ! 



While we shall always be glad to publish any fresh evidence 

 in this Magazine bearing on this and similar matters, we must 

 regard this particular discussion as closed, for the authors 

 would seem to question our right to criticism. — Eds.] 



NOTES ON THE PLUMAGE OF A GREAT NORTHERN 

 DIVER AND A WHITE-BILLED NORTHERN 

 DIVER. 

 As recorded in the "Bulletin" of the British Ornithologists' 

 Club (Vol. XXL, p. 38) the British Museum has recently 

 acquired two British-killed examples of Divers in remarkably 

 interesting stages of plumage. One of these is an immature 

 specimen of the Great Northern Diver {Colymhus glacialis) 

 in the summer-winter plumage of the second year ; the other 

 is a fine adult example of the rare White-billed Northern 

 Diver (C. adamsi), changing from the winter to the summer- 

 plumage. 



The Great Northern Diver was for^^•arded to me by Mr. 

 R. M. Barrington on behalf of Mr. Williams, taxidermist, 

 DubHn, and had been killed in the middle of November, 

 1907. It was specially interesting as showing the inter- 

 mediate plumage of the second j^ear, a little-known phase 

 rarely procured, and not represented among the sei'ies of 

 Divers in the British Museum [c/. Selby, Illustrations of 

 British Ornithology, II., p. 406 (1833)]. The bird had 

 apparently been bred in 1906, and its plumage showed a 

 mixture of the old summer-feathers of 1907 and of the new 

 winter-dress. The crown and hind-neck were in sooty-black 

 summer-plumage, the throat and fore-neck white, hke the rest 



