NOTES. 387 



a considerable amount of the first plumage, particularly on 

 the sides of the head and neck, where the feathers are mostly 

 Ught reddish-buff barred with black. The bill is large and 

 rather coarse, and the basal portions of the toes are feathered 

 as in the Red Grouse, while the terminal portions are naked 

 and pectinate on the sides as in the Black Grouse. Mr. Stobart 

 has kindly presented the specimen to the British Museum, and 

 1 had the pleasure of exhibiting it at the February meeting of 

 the British Ornithologists' Club. I have a further communica- 

 tion from Mr. Stobart saying that his keeper in Kirkcud- 

 bright has examined at close range a second example of this 

 hybrid on the same ground with some Red Grouse. 



Another male example of this rare hybrid has also been 

 offered to the British Museum by Mr. G. Ashley Dodd, but 

 has not yet been received. 



W. R. Ogilvie-Grant. 



THE BILL OF THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 



In the March number of British Birds there is a reference 

 to the White-billed Northern Diver. For the last three years 

 I have had opportunities of watching large numbers of Great 

 Northern Divers [Colymbus glacialis) in the Outer Hebrides 

 in the end of October and beginning of November. At that 

 time none of the birds had attained their full winter plumage, 

 and the neck bands were in every case easily detected, but in 

 nearly the whole of them the lower mandible was ivory- 

 coloured, and the upper mandible partially so. The bill 

 of C. adamsi is so remarkably " up- turned " that it would 

 be a far safer guide in winter than the colour. 



M. Bedford. 



[The plumages of the Great Northern Diver are very little 

 known, but it would seem from the Duchess of Bedford's 

 observations that it is not only the young that have light- 

 coloured bills in autumn. Mr. Ogilvie-Grant has noted 

 (Vol. L, p. 295) that in the young C. adamsi the up-curved 

 character of the lower mandible is much less marked, and 

 " mistakes may easily be made," but by the end of October 

 it is possible that birds of the year would have attained this 

 characteristic. We fancy that the purer white colour of the 

 bill of C. adamsi would make it distinguishable even at a 

 distance from C. glacialis. — Eds.] 



