OCCASIONAL NOTES. 485 
interesting. In this respect the young Ivory Gull resembles the South- 
American Gulls, Larus fuliginosus, L. belcheri, L. tenuirostris, L. scoresbii, 
the Californian L. heermanni, and the Japanese L. crassirostris, all of which 
have more or less of a hood in the immature stage, and lose it as they grow 
older. I may perhaps be allowed to repeat here my remarks (Proc. Zool. 
Soc., 1878, p. 162) on the genus Pagophila, viz., that “The short stout 
bill, coarse rough feet with serrated membranes, much excised webs, and 
strong curved claws, appear to entitle this species to generic separation. 
The hallux is connected on the inside of the foot by a serrated membrane 
with the inner toe, a peculiarity which I do not recollect seeing noticed 
elsewhere.” —Howarp Saunpens (7, Radnor Place, W.). 
Rare Birps anp TuE AvrumNaL Mreration.—It is not unworthy of 
record that several rare species of birds have reached our shores this 
autumn about the same dates. Thus, a number of Great Snipes have been 
recorded from England; I have myself seen two Snipes here, on the 27th 
September, which I feel confident were of this species, and one I have a 
record of was shot at Darmore Castle, Northumberland, on September 21st. 
As is now pretty well known to naturalists, the Great Snipe during 
summer is an inhabitant of the northern parts of the Old World. A Turtle 
Dove has been procured at Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, and was received 
for preservation by Mr. Robert Small, Edinburgh, on the 21st September. 
The breeding range of this species on the Continent of Europe extends 
north as far as 60° N. lat. in Russia, and somewhat farther north in 
Scandinavia. A Red-legged Hobby has been procured, and was sent in to 
Mr. Small on the 20th September. In the summer season this species 
occurs as far north as Archangel in Russia. An Esquimaux Curlew was 
shot on a hill in the Forest of Birse, Kincardineshire, on September 21st, 
and was sent in to Mr. George Sim, naturalist, Aberdeen, for preservation. 
The Esquimaux Curlew is an inhabitant, during the breeding season, of 
the Hudson’s Bay Territories and Arctic North America; but neither the 
Turtle Dove, Red-legged Hobby, nor Great Snipe, so far as is known, 
occurs in the breeding season in North America. It seems suggestive of 
the route by which North American species visit England and Scotland and 
certain parts of Continental Europe, that these species appear together, 
brought over by the same winds, about the same time. I think it will be 
found before long that the old idea that birds from North America have 
reached Europe for the most part vid the N.W., striking the Norwegian 
coast, aud rebounding, as it were, upon the coast of Aberdeenshire, will be 
given up, and the later one adopted, namely, that the greater part, if not 
all, come to us from the far north-east. I exclude from this general 
Statement, or theory, however, the Natatores, whose movements, so far as 
we are aware, proceed during autumn migration from north to south, as 
