9616 Birds. 



When one rose near ray punt, he would look wildly at me, raise his 

 tail in the air, utter his croak, swim rapidly for a few yards, and then 

 dive again. Their food was the fry of the sand-eels. Of this vast 

 host of birds aV)out one-third were in transition plumage, the rest in 

 winter dress. TI)e young as in winter, but generally vvith the addition 

 of a while- speckled line from bill to eye ; young birds sliot in January 

 never have tliis line. Is this line the only difference in the young from 

 first winter and second summer {i.e., that afler which they have been 

 hatched;, or does the young assume the dark head in second summer? 

 I have never seen yearlings here in summer. Five adulls shot are all 

 in different plumage: No. 1 nearly all black on the head and upper 

 neck; No. 2 thickly speckled black; No. 3 as in winter, but with the 

 while line speckled; No. 4 as in winter, iio white line, but indicated 

 at eye and bill by some white feathers ; No. 5, no white line. All the 

 birds panly black show llie white line distinctly. 



" February 28, 1864. Shot six razorbills (a rarity at this time of year 

 in the Bay), not for wanton cruelty, but for hat furniture lor some of 

 luy fair friends : two were young birds — no white line ; the other four 

 adults in winter plumage, one having a sliyhl indication of the white 

 line. 



"A])ril 2, 18G4. Tried the plumage of the razorbill again to-day; 

 shot four, two adults in winter plumage still, one with a speckled white 

 line, the other minus; the other two are nearly black, while line per- 

 fect; the bird without the line is oldest of the four and a male. At 

 first 1 fancied these lineless birds were ' two-year olds,' but the 'year- 

 lings' having a white line in March, and even getting it in February, 

 routed this notion. 1 lie siiuj)le fact alone, that all birds in the one 

 year want this line, clearly, 1 tiiink, proves it only to be a summer 

 appendage, assumed by individuals the first thing in the spring moult; 

 I never saw a summer bird without it. 



" March 2, 1865. A young razorbill killed to-day is getting the 

 while line; an adult indicates it by five or six feathers : one shot late 

 in February wants it. 



Harky Blake-Knox. 

 Dalkey, County Dublin, April 3, 1865. 



The Golden Oriole. — The last specimen which I reported to you Trom Scilly turns 

 out to he a male bird, and, fioin the {generative organs being at least one half the size 

 of the first bird, 1 should imagiue that it was last year's bird, and ihe first a two-yeara 



