1602 The Zoologist— March, 1869. 



" I have great doubt.; as to the three last being specifically 

 distinct. They all have the axillary plume smoke-gray (instead of 

 white, as in C. pluvialis), and, except in point of measurement, this 

 is the only respect in which they appear to diflfer from the European 

 bird. 



" Between themselves, as it seems to me from a comparison of 

 several skins, they differ only in the relative proportions of bill 

 and tarsus: the slight variations in size and colour (especially of 

 the tail-feathers) being attributable to the age of the individuals, and 

 to the seasons at which each is obtained. 



" No one of the three, C. longipes, C. virginicus or C. orientalis, 

 has as yet been recorded as visiting the British islands. Your 

 observations, therefore, at once give rise to the question, Does the 

 golden plover found in Lincolnshire, with the axillary gray, or partly 

 gray, belong to one of the three species just named, or is it merely 

 a variety of C. pluvialis, showing that the colour of the axillary 

 pUnne is not constant, and therefore of no specific value? 



" Should it be proved that the colour of the axillary plume in 

 C. pluvialis is often variable, as suggested, then I should be inclined 

 to say that the characters upon which the four species of golden 

 plover have been founded, are really insufficient to constitute them 

 distinct, and that there is but one species after all, whose geo- 

 graphical range, like that of the gray plover [Squatarola helvetica), 

 is world-wide, so far as is known." 



From these remarks it will be gathered that an important question 

 is raised on the difference between "species" and "variety." 



John Cordeadx. 



Great Coles, Ukebv, Lincolnshire. 



A Biiffcoloured Woodcock. — About a fortnight a^o I shot in Galway, in the wood 

 of Garryland, aboul two miles fioin Gort, a buffcoloured woodcock. The bird had the 

 same marks and was of the same size as the ordinary bird, but his pliimag;e was in 

 different shades of lifjht buff instead of brown. I have sent him to a birdstuffer in 

 Dublin to be set up.— Robert B. Tempter; Loughgall, Co. Armagh, December 2f!, 

 1868.— From the ' Field.' 



Black Swan, ^-c, on the Solent. — I have for preservation the following birds, shot 

 on the Solent waters: — Black swan shot in September last; great crested grebe, in 

 December; a great blackbacked gull and a male pintail duck in January, 1869. 

 Wild fowl have been scarce this winter, owing to the mildness of the weather. — John 

 Wright; Lyminglon, February 17, 1969, 



