624 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
were dark brown; the top of the head and the back 
of the neck slightly tinged with pale grey, and the 
secondary quills quite as dark as the primaries. 
This bird must very nearly have acquired its full 
plumage; except for the dark indes I should have 
considered it a full-plumaged bird, as the pale grey 
on the top of the head and back of the neck might 
only have been winter plumage, as in the case of the 
Kittiwake. It must certainly be much further ad- 
vanced than a young bird, “probably im its second 
summer,” described by Yarrell as having the tip of 
the bill yellow, the other parts greyish horn-colour ; 
head, neck, back, wings and tail nearly uniform ash- 
brown; chin, neck in front and all the under surface 
uniform ash-brown, but paler in colour than the 
upper surface. ‘This bird is something about the 
size of the Kittiwake; Yarrell says a little longer— 
nineteen inches, instead of fifteen and a half inches; 
the length of the wings the same, twelve inches. 
The egg is pure white, but varies in size from two 
inches seven lines to three inches one line in length 
by two inches in breadth. 
ForkKTAILED Prerren, Thalassidroma Leachia. 
This little wanderer of the sea occasionally occurs 
in this county, even in inland parts of it, during and 
after very stormy weather. There is one specimen 
at Cotheleston, which was picked up dead in a 
ploughed field by the late Mr. Esdaile, after some 
rough weather in the autumn. It has also occurred 
