THE ZooLocist— NovEMBER, 1875. 4697 
Plumage of the Stilt.—I observe that, in recording two Norfolk-killed 
specimens of the stilt, Mr. Stevenson refers to some shot by me in Egypt. 
I have lately returned from that country with a very fine collection of 
nearly six hundred birds, and among them several stilts, and I am still 
very much puzzled about the plumage. I should be much obliged if any 
one could tell me whether the white-headed ones are the summer plumage 
and the dark the winter? That is my idea, though some books on Natural 
History state the contrary, but can give no reasons. We always found, as 
Mr. Stevenson says, that the dark-backed birds were males; but I am sure 
the difference in the head—or rather in the nape—cannot be ascribed to 
sex. In most of the specimens we shot it was brown, but in a few it was 
black, and in some it was almost white. I never got one quite like the 
Ditchingham example, having black feathers “ sprouting” out of the occiput 
and the rest of the head white; but I shot several in most perplexing 
plumage. I fancy that the Ditchingham bird, if it had been killed a few 
weeks or days earlier, would have been found to have the occiput and 
hind neck entirely white—like one in my collection, which was killed on 
Breydon in 1823.—J. H. Gurney, jun. 
Green Sandpiper at Northrepps.—In recording a green sandpiper at 
Northrepps on the 21st of July (S. S. 4584), Mr. Stevenson has not added 
the curious fact that the duck-pond where it was wading is in the middle of 
our premises, with the house on one side and the stables on the other. 
J accounted for its presence in such a place by the fact that there 
had been during the morning one of the most tremendous downfalls of 
rain we ever experienced, which filled the pond a foot above its usual 
limits.—Id. 
Longtailed Duck in Kingsbridge Estuary—A female specimen of the 
longtailed duck was shot on the Kingsbridge Estuary on the 14th instant. 
The gentleman who shot it also obtained a male, almost in full plumage, on 
the 28th of October, 1865. They were both solitary birds—Richard P. 
Nicholls ; October 19, 1875. . 
Young Razorbiils and Guillemots.—In the early autumn we have a good 
_ many young guillemots and razorbills off the Norfolk coast—single birds, 
generally attended by the dam, which have come from Flamborough or 
some more northern nursery, and entrusted themselves when but one-third 
grown to the open sea. As their wings are not developed, being but three 
inches aud a quarter long from the carpus, they are totally unable to fly, 
and I have seen one afford great sport to some bathers in the surf, who 
eventually captured it. The fore neck in the youngster razorbill varies in 
colour, being sometimes black and sometimes pure white. As is well known, 
razorbills and guillemots may occasionally be obtained with the black throat 
in winter; but the reverse has happened to me, for I have shot a razorbill 
in the middle of July with a white throat, and another on the 14th of 
