2054 The Zoologist — March, 1870, 



drift-nets of one of the Grimsby herring-smacks. They are birds of 

 the year, in the plumage of the first winter, and agree closely with the 

 descrij3tion given by Mr. Blake-Knox (Zool. S. S. 550) of the plumage 

 of this gull in the first winter: they differ, however, in their feet, 

 which are a greenish gray, and not black, and the colour of the inside 

 of the mouth, which is orange-yellow, and not yellow. This species, 

 as Mr. Blake-Knox observes, is strictly an ocean bird : I have never 

 met with it on the land. 



Plover, Green and Golden. — Perhaps the most striking feature of 

 our marshes at this season is the immense flocks of golden and green 

 plover, which we daily see by thousands together, either on the wing 

 or feeding in the extensive grass marshes for miles skirting the 

 H umber embankment. This winter is, however, a most exceptional 

 one, as I have only noted one small flock of peewit since the 11th of 

 November, on which day I recorded the extraordinary flight of this 

 species towards the N.W. (S. S. 1978). Our resident golden plover 

 are restricted to two or three small flocks, which, as they invariably 

 choose the centre of our largest fields, are practically unapproachable. 

 The character of the present winter is much like those of the two 

 previous years, when we had an abundance of both species ; and 

 I know of no local cause to occasion their absence from the district. 



Rooks and Wood Pigeons. — The turnip crop of 1869 in this district 

 has been subjected to the attack of a small beetle known as the turnip 

 weevil [Nedyus conlracius, Newman).* The bulbs are more or less 

 covered by a mass of knobs and rugosities, in many cases completely 

 altering their shape and impairing both the quality and growth of the 

 root : each of these knobs or excrescences contains a small white 

 grub, much sought after both by rooks and wood pigeons, which come 

 daily to feed upon them : they break open the knobs and extract its 

 inhabitant. 1 lately examined a field, half of which is sown with 

 yellow and purple turnips in equal proportions, and the other half 

 with swedes ; scarcely a bulb had escaped the attacks of this insidious 

 enemy. The swedes, however, had snff'ered in a less degree than the 

 common and softer turnips. I had some trouble to find a bulb which 

 had not been pierced by the rooks and wood pigeons. In every case 

 the top only of the knob was broken away, leaving just sufficient 

 room to permit the extraction of the grub. Unfortunately this opera- 

 tion is anything but beneficial to the root, letting in both the wet and 



* I am indebted lo Mr. Newmau for a descriplioD of ibis insect. 



