THE ZooLtocist—OcToBER, 1875. 4667 
shooting, and I have several times heard gunners and other persons who 
make a practice of shooting on the extensive muds of our coast say that it 
is a very common sequel to a successful shot into a large flock of dunlins to 
have a large herring gull or an old blackback pounce upon the wounded 
ones.—J. H. Gurney, jun. 
Pomatorhine Skuas and Black Guillemots at Flamborough.— In the 
‘ Zoologist’ (S. 8. 4882) my father mentions a remarkable lusus of the 
razorbill, which he obtained from Flamborough, from Mr. Bailey, for my 
collection. At the same time there were sent him several pomatorhine and 
Richardson’s skuas and a young black guillemot, which he did not record, 
with the information that they had all been shot about the same time, viz., 
at the end of January; but, as the skuas were skinned, some of them may 
have been shot before that. The black guillemot is marked ‘ November.” 
It appears to be barely full-grown. I have compared it with five other 
immature examples, but there is only one as young in its plumage, which 
was shot at Blakeney, near here. They both have the under parts profusely 
mottled with black, and the amount of white on the wing is small, par- 
ticularly in the Blakeney bird, in which it consists in two narrow bars only. 
Two of the pomatorhines are adult, with straw neck fairly marked and 
under parts white, but the central tail-feathers are not fully developed. In 
one they are not flush with the other rectrices, being a good quarter of an 
inch shorter, yet the singular and unnatural twist in them is fully shown. 
One day when I was out shooting at Blakeney, the boatman pointed out to 
me an oyster-boat in the channel. He said he was on board when a poma- 
torhine skua struck against the mast and dropped down disabled. He ran 
into the cabin for his gun, got the disabled bird, and also shot another 
which was keeping company with it. He sold them to Mr. Alcock, of that 
place, at whose house I saw them. The pomatorhine was a splendid adult : 
the other bird which the boatman had killed was a Buffon’s skua, also 
adult. I should like to have purchased the pair, as they are decidedly 
rare with us in that plumage. Torbay seems to be the best locality, where 
several observers state that they are to be obtained from time to time. 
Prof. Newton mentions on ong occasion seeing as many as ninety there 
(‘Ibis,’ 1863, p.190), but does not say whether any of them were adult. 
With reference to the razorbill my father states that no similar variety 
had ever come under his notice. There was, however, in my collection 
already a specimen which resembles it in the washed-out paleness of 
the darker part of its plumage. It is in summer plumage. The fore 
neck is of a light reddish brown. The beak and feet, however, appear to 
have been the natural colour in life. The curious thing about the Flam- 
borough bird was that they were a perfect yellow.—ld. 
