4078 The Zoologist — July, 1874. 



near the Lizard on Monday last. There was nothing pecuHar in the colour 

 of the plumage from the general description of the adult bird by Mr. Yarrell. 

 I may remark, however, that instead of being ten inches in length, this bird 

 was fully ten and a half inches, the wings exceeding the tail by at least half 

 an inch ; the exterior tail-feathers taper away into almost a filament. In 

 handling the bird in the flesh, it was quite bewildering to try to reconcile 

 its characters to the place it ought to take in our British Avifauna ; for 

 in the character of its beak you could understand its claim to the family 

 of swallows ; we must take leave of the forked tail as a character of the 

 swallow tribe, and allow this feature to claim its kindred to the terns, with 

 which it has been associated ; but when you look at the feet and tarsi and 

 the naked part of the tibiae, you are at once drawn to the stints and sand- 

 pipers, with which it has been associated, and then, knowing that the bird 

 is found on open downs and dr}' pastures, and that it has extraordinary 

 cursorial powers, with a tone of plumage and mode of flight not unlike 

 the common dotterel, you are tempted to be reconciled to the place now 

 allotted it by our naturahsts, by the side of the plovers. There is a record 

 of the pratincole having been obtained in Cornwall once or twice many 

 years ago ; but this is the first example of a bird in the flesh coming under 

 my notice. — Edward Hearle Eodd; Penzance, June 10, 1874. 



PS. — The bird was observed, by a boy who was coot shooting, flying 

 backwards and forwards over a large pool on the Lizard downs, exactly like 

 the swallow tribe, and apparently hawking for insects. It alighted for a time 

 on the margin of the pool, where it was shot. Sex male. — E. H. R. ; 

 June 10, 1R74. 



Note on the Voracity of a Tame Duck. — The following statement was 

 communicated to me early in the present month (June) on what I believe 

 to be perfectly reliable authority. A gamekeeper at Swanton Abbot, in 

 Norfolk, lost thirteen newly-hatched pheasants, which he was bringing up 

 under hens. They disappeared one after another without his being able to 

 account for their loss, till at length a tame duck, which was sitting on her 

 eggs not far off, was observed to leave her nest and make her way to the 

 pheasant-coops, when she seized a young pheasant in her bill and swallowed 

 it whole. The inference that she had also swallowed the thirteen pheasants 

 which had previously disappeared seems to be a reasonable one. — J. H. 

 Qurney: NorthrepiJS, Nonvich, June 12, 1874. 



Iceland Gull. — I have in my collection a specimen of this rare gull in a 

 curious state of plumage, having the legs of the adult, breast and back of 

 the second year, while the head and bill are apparently those of the young 

 bird. It was shot by a fisherman, some two months ago, between Hastings 

 and Rye. He said that he had observed it, in company with auolher of 

 the same kind, for two or three days before he shot it, and that he knew 

 they were strangers by their white wings. Mr. Knox mentions, in the third 



