x PREFACE. 



In noticing an undoubted specimen of this American species 

 said to have been killed in Hampshire (vol. Hi. p. 160), I 

 did not then consider the evidence quite sufficient to justify 

 admission to the British list. On the 15th of January, 

 1885, Mr. Jenkinson shot and sent to Mr. Vingoe for pre- 

 servation (Zool. 1885, p. 118), a specimen which I have 

 since examined. 



TOTANUS SOLITAKIUS (Wilson) . The Solitary Sandpiper. 

 In my note on this species (vol. iii. p. 468), I hesitated to 

 include the species on the reported occurrence on the Scilly 

 Islands of an example which had not been authenticated by 

 some expert. Since then, a bird of this species has been 

 shot near Marazion, Cornwall, and has been identified by 

 competent authorities (Zool. 1885, p. 113). 



COLYMBUS ADAMSI, Gray. The Yellow-billed Northern 

 Diver. Since writing the remarks on this recognizable species 

 (vol. iv. p. 100), Mr. J. H. Gurney has kindly sent me a 

 photograph of the head of the immature bird shot on the 

 Suffolk coast in 1852, and the form of the bill shows clearly 

 that it is an example of Colymbus adamsi. Mr. H. 

 Seebohm has identified a second specimen, in the Newcastle 

 Museum, shot on the coast of Northumberland, and has 

 given his views on the geographical distribution of the 

 species in ' The Zoologist,' 1885, p. 144. 



I am only aware of three errors of sufficient importance 

 for notice beyond the inevitable Errata. The first is to be 

 found in vol. iii. p. 678, line 26, in the description of the 

 young of the Arctic Skua, where, by an inadvertence, the 

 words "the shafts of the two outer feathers white, the others 

 dusky"; have slipped in; they really refer to the next 

 species, the Long-tailed Skua. 



In the article on the Puffin, vol. iv. p. 95, line 2, by a slip 

 of the pen consequent upon the transposition of the words 

 ' summer ' and ' winter ' in the revise, the very opposite of 

 what is meant is stated. It is obvious that the bill of the 

 Puffin is larger in summer than in winter, and that word 

 should be substituted for " smaller." 



