60 ALCiDj:. 



A 3'oung bird about a week old, obtained from the rocks 

 at the Isle of Wight, has the beak smooth and black, no 

 white line to the eye, but the chin and throat are white, with 

 a few greyish-black hairs about the middle of the neck in 

 front ; the head and hind neck black, with a few white hairs ; 

 body above and the wings dull sooty-black. 



Mr. Cordeaux informs the Editor that in a variety shot at 

 Flamborough on the 30th January, 1875, now in the collec- 

 tion of Mr. J. H. Gurney, the bill, legs, and feet were bright 

 yellow, the plumage being that of the ordinary winter dress, 

 excepting that the dark portions of the head and neck were 

 somewhat paler than in normal examples. In May, 1873, 

 when off Rye in a yacht, he saw one of a pair which had the 

 nape, neck, upper part of back, and wing-coverts of a very 

 light brown, giving the bird a singularly piebald appear- 

 ance. Mr. George Maclachlan, for some years lighthouse- 

 keeper at Barra Head, and one of our most careful observers, 

 states that he has seen a small proportion of Razor-bills and 

 Guillemots with light-brown backs, and he is of opinion 

 that this colour is hereditary (Pr. N. H. Soc. Glasgow, 

 iv. p. 284. 



Saxby records (B. of Shetland, p. 314) an adult female 

 shot on the 17tli December which had no white line between 

 the base of the bill and the eye ; and a similar example 

 from Scotland is in the British Museum. 



