2214 The Zoologist — July, 1870. 



the organ. No good reason appears to forbid the supposition that its 

 growth and subsequent re-absorption, may be periodical. Arguments 

 for such a belief might readily be adduced in the periodical hypertrophy 

 and atrophy of the combs, wattles, caruncles, and the various other 

 fleshy or cutaneous or semi-corneous growths about the head and bill 

 of very many birds, which enlarge during the breeding season, and 

 afterwards diminish or entirely disappear. It is also within the limits 

 of possibility that caruncles of this species is a sexual characteristic. 

 The specimen above mentioned (No. 46,563) is marked female. How- 

 ever close to, or remote from, the truth either or both of the foregoing 

 suggestions may be, it is certain that observed facts relating to the 

 rostral knob of this bird are at variance with generally received 

 doctrines about it, and are explicable by the application of one or the 

 other of the preceding hypotheses. At present we are very much in 

 the dark in the matter. 



Various ages, conditions of plumage and bill of this species are well 

 represented by the numerous specimens in the Museum of the Phila- 

 delphia Academy and of the Smithsonian Institution, from various 

 localities along the coasts and among the islands of the North Pacific. 

 No specimens are contained in any other American collection. 



(To be conlinued.) 



Extracts f Ornithological) from the Log of the " Coralie,'^ R.Y.Y.C. 



By John Cordeaux, Esq. 



From the Humber to the Tweed. 



Contrary winds and unsettled weather having delayed our de- 

 parture from the Humber for ten days, we finally embarked, on the 

 morning of the 5th of May, for a fortnight's cruise to the North. 



12.15 P.M. Got under way, and by 2 P. M. had rounded the Spurn, 

 well pleased to be again afloat on the wild North Sea. There were 

 numerous gulls near the mouth of the river, principally herring and 

 the common species, some brownheads (by far the commonest of our 

 Humber gulls, but now, with the exception of a i*iVf old birds, away 

 at their breeding-places), some lesser blackbacks and one pair of 

 mature great blackbacks. No other birds seen, excepting a black- 

 throated diver, who took no notice of the cutler till we were almost 

 upon him, when diving under a big wave he was seen no more. 



