1868 The Zoologist— October, 1869. 



and all the upper surface of the body, sooty black ; the chin, breast and under parts 

 pure white; while the tail is long and considerably forked. I examined the bird in 

 the flesh. Mr. Franklyn may well be congratulated as the fortunate possessor of one 

 of the rarest of so-called British birds. — /. Edmund Harting. 



Black Tenis Egg in Norfolk. — On the 20lh of April last an egg of the black tern 

 was found on a marsh near Yarmouth ; it was in the yelk and quite fresh, being pro- 

 bably dropped by chance. — T. E. Gunn. 



Pomerine Skua at Aldebiirgh. — On Wednesday, the 1st instant, I observed from 

 the beach a small dark gull, curiously striped under the wings. Later in the day 

 a similar bird was shot and taken to Air. Hele of this place : it proved to be an imma- 

 ture specimen of the pomeriue skua; length about 14 inches; colour dark brown, 

 mottled and splashed with a deeper tint; the quill- feathers were black, edged with 

 pale fawn-colour ; tail black ; under the wings were wavy bands of brown on an 

 ulinosl while ground, giving ihe curious effect described above. The two central tail 

 feathers, so ]n'uminent in a mature specimen, only projected about half an inch. — 

 H. M. Wallis ; Brudt-nell Terrace, Aldeburgh. 



Fulmar Petrel at Sallburn. — On the iSJih of June I fonnd a dead fulmar at Sail- 

 burn, washed up by the tide. This petrel is usually reckoned a rare winter visitor, and 

 I cannot find that one has been obtained in England in June before. — J.H. Gurneg, 

 jun. ; Bank, Dtrlington. 



Varieties of Birds' Nests in one Garden. — It may interest some of the readers of 

 the ' Field' and lovers of natural history to learn that the following nests are in a 

 garden in this parish, within a radius of thirty yards, excepting the robin's and golden 

 crested wren's nests, which are situated thirty yards outside: — nuthatch, tiretail, blue 

 titmouse (in three separate holes in the same red cedar), long-tailed titmouse, cole 

 titmouse, tree creeper, flycatcher, moorhen, thrush, blackbird, missel thrush, grren 

 linnet, brown linnet, wren, starling, sparrow, robin, golden-crested wren. — Win. Gage 

 Blake ; Nowlon, burg St. Edmunds {From the ' Field '). 



Zootora V. Lacerta. — I am not quite prepared to pive up the generic disiinclnessof 

 Ziioloca, for, after all, the fact of the deposit of eggs in a very few cases may be easily 

 accounted for without this concession. I should like to know the condition of the 

 eggs when excluded, and the period of the escape of the young after the eggs were 

 expelled. I believe that I have slated that the young of the viper are only hatched 

 (if such an expression may be allowed) in the act of extrusion, and that this liberation 

 happens from the soft condition of the egg-covering. I think this is the case in 

 Zoutoca, and ihat the instances of the eggs being deposited whole may be only due to 

 the unusual tnnghness of the membrane being such that the pressure in the act of ex- 

 trusion is not sufiicient tobre^ik it. The distinction between the snake and the viper and 

 that between Lacerta and Znotoca, quoad the deposit of the egg, is quite analogous. 

 It is not at all improbable that further observation might afl^ord instances of the viper 

 expelling its young still covered with its membranes; but this, as in ihe ease of 

 Ziiotoca, is a very difi'erent thing from the comparatively tough covering of the egg in 

 Coluber and Lacerta. The real distinction, after all, does not consist in the accident of 

 the young being expelled still covered wilh the membrane, or the contrary, but that iu 



