342 BRITISH BIRDS. 



of the skeleton, are left; the "kills " found during the time 

 the young were in or at the nest included seven Pheasants, 

 one fowl, one Woodcock, two Jays, five Thrushes, three 

 Blackbirds, one Bullfinch, one Robin, two Redstarts, one 

 Chaffinch, and several warblers. 



Gannet inland. — A Gannet (Sula bassana), in first year's 

 plumage, was picked up alive on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, 

 on November 30th, 1909, by Captain Faith (C. E. J. Hannett, 

 Selborne Mag., 1910, p. 14). 



Little Bittern in Oxfordshire. — A female Ardetta 

 minuta, with its wing shattered by contact with a telegraph 

 wire, was picked up at Somerton, in the Cherwell Valley, on 

 June 27th, 1909 (0. V. Aplin, Zool, 1909, p. 468). 



Albino Mallard. — Mr. W. E. Suggitt writes to us that a 

 pure white Anas boscas was shot at Tetney Haven, Lincoln- 

 shire, on January 29th, 1910. 



Erythrism of the Red Grouse. — A rufous variety of 

 Lagopus scoticus, similar to the variation of the Partridge 

 known as Perdix montana, was exhibited by Mr. J. G. Millais 

 at the December meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club 

 {Bull. B.O.C., XXV., p. 40). Such a variety is extremely 

 rare in the Red Grouse, but there is a male (Loch Sween, 

 Aug. C. C. S. Parsons) in the British Museum which resembles 

 the example shown by Mr. Millais, who has examined another 

 specimen (a young female) shot by Sir Peter Walker in Arran 

 in September, 1907, from a covey which contained similar birds. 

 The bird shown is an adult male, shot at Carradale, Argyllshire, 

 in October, 1908, and may be thus described : — " The chestnut- 

 red covered the front of the neck and extended to the nape, 

 chest, greater part of the back, scapulars, rump, and tail- 

 coverts. On the scapulars and rump a few curious feathers 

 were blood-red and black, edged with a rufous tint. The 

 primaries were normal, but the secondaries and other wing- 

 feathers were very singular, being rufous, edged with black 

 loops, instead of being barred. The crown of the head, lower 

 breast, flanks, and vent were of a deep burnt-sienna. A few 

 normal white feathers were to b'e seen on the bastard wing, 

 lower breast, and sides of the lower mandible. The feet and 

 legs were normal." 



Plumage of the Woodcock. — Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant 

 has made a careful investigation into the plumage of young 

 and adult Woodcocks of both sexes, and is of opinion that it 

 is " impossible to distinguish between the plumage of the 

 male and female Woodcock, or between old birds and young 



