The Zoologist — November, 1874. 4239 



of swallows and martins. It was of a beautiful pearl-gray colour, and showed 

 the chestnut mark ou the throat, but not so distinctly as birds in the ordinary 

 j^lumage. First woodcock and hooded crow seen ou Friday, October IGth. — 

 J. Whilaker. 



Gray Pbalarope in Covnwall. — Two gray phalaropes were shot here on 

 Friday, the 9 th of October : I had not heard of any for some years before. 

 I yesterday took a long walk on our western beach, when I was much 

 struck with the unusual scarcity of birds, ouly meeting with a flight of 

 eleven turustones, a few pipits, wagtails, about a dozen carrion crows, two 

 wheatears (late visitors), one kingfisher, a large flock of brown linnets, one 

 cormorant, and a very few gulls. My memory carried me back some thirty 

 years or more, recalling the many flocks of various shore birds I should 

 have seen at that time during a similar walk, — turustones, ringed dotterels, 

 gray sandpipers, sanderliugs, &c., — but now, alas ! how changed. I am at 

 a loss how to account for it. — Stephen Clofjo ; Looe, October 17, 1874 



Gray Phalaropc in Clicsbirc. — While walking along the shore near here, 

 ou Tuesday, October 6th, I came upon a beautiful little gray phalarope 

 swimming along the edge of some salt water pells behind the sea-wall : it 

 was very tame, and allowed me almost to touch it with my walking-stick. 

 I went again the next morning to see if my Httle friend was still there, but 

 he had taken his departure. It was in perfect winter plumage. — Arthur J. 

 Clark-Kennedy ; Leasoice Castle, Birkenhead. 



Mute Swan in Guernsey. — I have preserved and stuffed two very fine 

 mute swans {Cygnus Olor), male and female, shot on the island, in the 

 Bray Pond, near the Vale Church, on the 7th of this month. The male 

 was seventy inches in length, spread of wings one hundred inches, and 

 weighed seventeen pounds and a half; the female was fifty-seven inches in 

 length, spread of wings ninety-one inches, and weighed fourteen pounds and 

 a quarter. Five others passed over the island on the same day fi'om south- 

 west to north; they were flying very low, and, judging from their colour, 

 were young birds. The specimens I have to preserve are pure white over 

 the back, but the feathers on the belly are slightly tinged with gray. Last 

 Monday, the 21st, I got a very fine adult female kestrel, with fourteen tail- 

 feathers, each feather perfectly tipped with white : the feathers were quite 

 new, as if the bird had just finished its moult. — James Couch; Sept. 26, 

 1874. 



The Black Gannet. — Will you allow me to suggest that the piebald 

 gannets mentioned by Mr. Taylor (Zool. S. S. 4199) are ouly young birds in 

 the ordinary plumage of the second or third year, and no unusual variety 

 at all. — Cecil Smith ; Bishop's Lydeard, near Taunton. 



BufFou's Skua near Falmouth.— Mr. Viugoe showed me last evening an 

 adult specimen of this small skua, which he received from the neighbour- 

 hood of Falmouth, and it was reputed to have been killed ten miles inland. 



