Tue ZooLocist—Junp, 1872. : 3097 
popular belief I find is that the old rooks starve, or only half-feed, 
their young, often leaving the nest in order the sooner to tempt 
them away into the fields; knowing full well that with full 
stomachs they could not exert themselves, but hang about the 
rookery till shot. 
Starling.— April 9; wind W. to N.W., astrong breeze. Very 
large flock of migratory starlings seen on coast. None after this 
date. 
Fieldfare——April 10 to 16. Many large flocks in the coast 
marshes. Last seen on the 16th. 
Willow Wren.—April 11. Heard and seen. 
Jack Snipe.—April 11. Last seen, a single bird. 
Iceland Gull.—April 18. There was an Iceland gull. in a field 
near the Humber for several hours this morning. My men were 
sowing oats at the time, and by walking close up to the teams I 
had an unusually favourable opportunity of observing this stranger, 
evidently, along with other gulls, attracted by the freshly scattered 
seed. Its size was that of an average herring gull, perhaps a little 
less, but with the wings proportionately longer; these struck me as 
unusually long for the size of the body, and not only longer, but 
narrower and more pointed than the herring gulls, and from what I 
saw I should say its powers of flight are decidedly superior to that 
species. The marvellous ease and power with which, with long sweeps 
and graceful curves, it beat nearly dead to windward against a more 
than half-gale from the north, showed no ordinary strength of wing. 
It was not fully adult, but apparently about assuming the mature 
plumage. There was not a single spot of really dark colour about 
it: the head, neck, tail, under surface and primaries looked pure 
white; the back and wing-coverts at a short distance a dirty white, 
but viewed through a powerful binocular had a bluish gray tinge, 
lighter than the same parts in the herring gull; cropping forth 
through this I could detect many very pale yellowish brown 
feathers, and these it was that gave that soiled look to the upper 
plumage, quite spoiling the beauty of the bird. Here and there too 
was a feather darker than the rest, and this gave somewhat a spotted 
appearance. The darkest parts about the bird (but dark only in 
comparison) were the wing-coverts along the edge of the wing. It 
did not consort with the other gulls, but kept alone, and was perse- 
cuted whilst I remained in the field, by two carrion crows and 
afterwards by the peewits, who seemed well aware it was out of its 
