2394 The Zoologist — December, 1870. 



dealer told me this, and I took particular pains to ascertain if it was 

 the truth. As a rule, they do not think it worth while importing gulls 

 from abroad. With these birds was one specimen of the so-called 

 common skua : it was entered in the paper which had come with the 

 game as a " Mother Bing." 



I bought a Nyroca on the 19lh, but it is too early yet for ducks. 

 I have scarcely seen one in complete plumage, with the exception of 

 a consignment of eiders from the Orkney Islands. When the winter 

 sets in they will come iu plenty, and if we have a hard frost the 

 market will be inundated. 



The various species of geese are, however, already beginning to be 

 more or less plentiful. I observed some very heavy graylags on the 

 21st in Smilhfield, which I had reason to believe were of Irish origin, 

 and owed their immense size to domestication : they go wild and get 

 shot, and are not to be told from genuine graylags. This view was 

 confiruied by one of the best Irish naturalists. 



I am quite certain that a large proportion of the birds in the London 

 markets are British-killed, and the game-doalers, when they " get to 

 know you," will give not only the exact locality, but occasionally even 

 the names of their agents. 



The birds which I have mentioned were all seen between the 17th 

 of October and the 10th of November, and I never went more than 

 three times in one week ; but it is not what one gets at these places, 

 but what one learns. 



I know that I missed several scarce things, including a great black 

 woodpecker and two little bitterns. Sometimes I also visited the new 

 Smithfield Market, but there was never so much there. 



J. H. GURNEY, JUN. 

 2, Beta Place, Alpha Road, N.W., 

 November 11, 1870. 



Qiiai/s in Penibiokeshire. By Thomas Dix, Esq. 



Hearing early in September that several quails had been killed in 

 this neighbourhood, I was induced to make further inquiries, and 

 with the kind assistance of my friend Mr. John Phillips, of Newcastle 

 Emlyn, I have obtained a list of at least three hundred and thirty, 

 killed by only eighteen sportsmen, in the counties of Cardigan and 

 Pembroke. Tlie total number bagged it is impossible to get at; but 



