3560 The Zoologist — June, 1873. 



present winter of 1872 — 3. Between the 15th of November and 

 the 8th of February I have notes of some sixteen examples killed 

 in various parts of the county, in date about equally distributed 

 over the period before and after Christmas. The majority of those 

 I have examined have been in remarkably fine plumage, some 

 having from six to seven wax tips on each wing, but none eight, 

 as I have seen on former occasions. When the number of tips is 

 uneven I have frequently found the deficient quill showing traces 

 of friction or other injury. In the most adult birds the yellow 

 markings on the outer webs of the primaries are carried round the 

 tip of each feather, with a more or less clearly defined white 

 edging. One bird killed this season, a female by dissection, differs 

 from any I have ever seen (though I have handled more than a 

 hundred freshly-killed specimens at different times) in having no 

 wax tips at all, even in the most rudimentary state. I believe this 

 bird, from its general appearance, lo be a young female, but as 

 even the nestlings are known to show this peculiar feature, this is 

 no question of age, nor can I positively state any reliable 

 distinction between the sexes, short of dissection ; young males and 

 females and adult males and females being, relatively, so much 

 alike. Yarrell's statement that females have never more than five 

 wax tips is inaccurate, as I have dissected specimens with six and 

 seven in each wing, the yellow and white markings on the 

 primaries being, in those birds, as fine as in any adult males. By 

 far the larger number of the birds killed this winter have proved 

 to be males. Besides a few stragglers we have had no waxwing 

 year since the memorable winter of 1866—7, when, between the 

 17th of November and the 7th of January, one hundred and forty- 

 four specimens were killed to my knowledge in Norfolk only, and 

 their abundance was noticed in many other counties. Throughout 

 that lime the weather was' extremely severe. Mr. Thomas South- 

 well, when dissecting several of those recently sent to Norwich for 

 preservation, found, in the stomachs of all but two, the remains of 

 whitethorn haws ; the exceptions had been feeding apparently on 

 privet berries, the whole intestinal canal being stained a rich purple. 



March. 

 Great Crested Grebe. — About the middle of the month some 

 half-a-dozen of these birds were killed on different broads in this 

 county, just returned to their nesting haunts, but too soon, unfor- 



