3016 TxHE ZooLocist—A pRriL, 1872. 
pally herring gulls, both mature and immature (in the first year’s 
plumage). The mature birds are much the most numerous. They 
are far from shy, and allow me to ride amongst them, so that there 
is no occasion to use a binocular, as I can easily discern the tint 
of bill and tarsi with the naked eye. Very lovely indeed does the 
mature bird look in his pure unsullied dress, and I quite envy him 
as he paddles about in the semi-fluid soil, the only clean thing in 
this unclean land, where everything seems stained to an universal 
clayey hue. The immature birds, too, are to be admired in their 
pretty marbled garb of quiet gray. I have been very much struck 
this winter by the great difference in size in this species. Some 
of the old gulls look quite small compared with others, and the 
same is noticeable in the young: to pick extremes, the disparity 
seems sufficient to create a specific distinction. In the common 
gulls, which occasionally join these assemblies, I do not notice the 
same irregularity; they are all much alike in size. To-day 
(February 27th), amongst the herring gulls was a single brown- 
headed gull, already wearing his summer cap. 
Shorteared Owl.—I have had a captive owl of this species 
throughout the winter, feeding him on birds and mice, but he will 
eat anything in the way of flesh, cooked or raw. I have him 
confined in a large roomy packing-case, having the front covered 
with galvanized wire rabbit-fencing. There is a circular perch 
about three-quarters of an inch in diameter through the centre of 
the case, and on this he always sits, perching invariably with two 
toes only to the front, the outer toes being turned to the rear. 
Wild Geese —February 29th. Saw a skein of ten wild geese 
flying a few feet above the Humber this morning: from their size 
and colour I believe them to have been graylags. 
JoHN CoRDEAUX. 
Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 
March 5, 1872. 
Litter of Sixteen Puppies, of which one only was a Male.—With 
reference to the pointer bitch producing a litter of ten female pups at a 
birth, as noticed in the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 2990), I will place on record that 
a large white terrier bitch, in my possession when in Calcutta, produced a 
litter of sixteen, only one of which was of the male sexi—H. Blyth; 
Zoological Society of London, March 8, 1872. 
The Otter.—I shall be greatly obliged for any reliable information as to 
the breeding habits of the otter; particularly the time of year it brings 
