2630 The Zoologist — June, 1871. 



On a comparison of these measurements, it will be observed that 

 the wing projects further beyond the tail in the smaller than in the 

 larger bird ; and it should also be remarked that the curve de- 

 scribed by the ridge of the upper mandible is more convex in the 

 former than in the latter. The supposed mashed gull only differs 

 in coloration from a brownheaded gull of similar age in the brown 

 tint of the legs and feet, in the outer tail-feathers being tipped with 

 brown as well as the interior ones, and in the white patch on the 

 primaries being divided into two distinct narrow portions by an 

 intervening broad line of black : of these while patches one runs 

 on each side of the shaft of the primary to within half an inch of 

 the tip of the feather, the shaft itself being whits where it passes 

 through this spot; the other white spot, which is the broader of 

 the two, is placed higher up in the feather, in the inner web, 

 midway between the shaft and the edge of the feather. I am by 

 no means certain that this gull is anything more than an abnormal 

 specimen of Larus lidibuudus, but have thought it sufficiently 

 remarkable to make it desirable to place on record the above 

 particulars. 



January 5. An adult pair of smews observed on the River 

 Dart, and the female obtained. A remarkable variety of the 

 starling killed near Torquay, with all the anterior portions of 

 the plumage pure white, and the posterior portions white, mingled 

 with the natural colour of the species in its ordinary dress. 



January 7. An eared and a horned grebe obtained in Tor- 

 bay : the former species, as I am informed by Mr. Shopland, 

 is very rare on this coast: both were, of course, in full .winter 

 dress. 



January 19. A rednecked grebe obtained in Torbay, and two 

 others subsequently, all in winter dress. 



February 8. A very large specimen of the glaucous gull killed 

 in Torbay. The general plumage of this example is pure white, 

 mingled with slight remains of the immature light brown plumage 

 throughout, but especially on the tail. On the back a few feathers 

 appeared to be slightly tinged with the bluish gray colouring of 

 the adult dress. A glaucous gull in similar plumage, but a 

 smaller specimen, was killed in Torbay in March, 1868, and was 

 erroneously recorded by me as an Iceland gull in the ' Zoologist' 

 for that year (S. S. 1222). The albescent plumage which cha- 

 racterized both these specimens appears to me to be assumed by 



