SOME BIRD NOTES 245 



hot." In the morning I saw the gunner Youngs, already 

 referred to, in a somewhat excited state ; he had seen them, 

 and threatened to run up in the afternoon to secure them, if 

 possible. He did not, but, as already narrated, he fell in 

 with the red-crested ducks instead. The ibises remained 

 in the neighbourhood for some days, but got away unscathed. 

 But they were fated not to escape the vigilant eye of the 

 gunner. On October ipth Mr. J. H. Gurney wrote me as 

 follows : " The four glossy ibises have all been accounted for, 



RED-CRESTED WHISTLING DUCK, GOLDEN EYE, SHELD-DUCK 



three in Ireland and one in Sussex ; so their peregrinations 

 are over." 



Two red-throated divers (Colymbus septentrionalis) made 

 their way to our neighbourhood in October, 1906, attracted 

 thither, no doubt, by the inshoring of the herrings. An old 

 shore-gunner of my acquaintance, who is a keen shot, went 

 after them. One day he killed one of them, and the bird 

 was shown me. It had the red on the neck prettily mottled 

 and streaked with grey. A few days after this same gunner 

 slew the other, which had kept in the neighbourhood. I also 

 saw this, and was astonished to find it entirely minus the 

 flight-feathers (primaries), which were the merest soft stumps 

 possible ; and a margining of white fluffy down marked the 

 outside of the secondary feathers. Did this bird moult in 

 this neighbourhood ? or had it never as yet assumed its 



