164 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
former birds have been more plentiful during the present winter 
than I can remember for many years past. Mr. Stephen Clogg, of 
Looe, Cornwall, informs me that he observed two of them fishing 
above the bridge at that place—a circumstance which he had 
never previously noted during a residence of forty years. Through 
the kindness of the same gentleman, I was enabled to examine 
a beautiful variety of the Arctic Tern, which had been killed by a 
boy with a stone during the past autumn. It appears to be a young 
bird of the year, pure white, with the bill and legs red, but unfor- 
tunately the colour of the eyes was not noticed. It is now in the 
collection of Mr. J. Marshall, of Belmont, Taunton, who informs 
me that he has lately obtained a milk-white Jay (shot near York), 
a white Pipit, a pied Red-breasted Pipit, and a buff Red-breasted 
Flycatcher—the three latter procured in the neighbourhood of 
Constantinople. 
During the early part of February Razorbills and Guillemots 
appeared in some numbers on our coasts, and many adult and 
immature Great Black-backed Gulls were shot. A Shieldrake—a 
species seldom obtained in this locality except during very severe 
weather—was killed in the neighbourhood on the 13th. 
By February 16th Cormorants had well advanced towards their : 
breeding plumage, gray feathers appearing about the head and 
neck, and the white patch above the thighs very conspicuous. 
A Great Spotted Woodpecker was brought to a Stonehouse bird- 
stuffer on the 17th of that month, and another on the 23rd: this 
species is much more commonly met with near Plymouth during 
winter than at any other time of the year. On the 22nd I observed 
a Black Redstart on the coast. By that date Chaffinches were in 
full song, and many Black-headed Gulls had assumed the dark 
hood. By February 26th Guillemots had assumed the perfect 
breeding-plumage. 
—+9——. 
OBSERVATIONS ON EGG-BLOWING. 
3y Epwarp BIpwett. 
Durine the last few seasons I have had considerable expe- 
rience in egg-blowing, and though endowed by nature with a good 
pair of natural bellows, I frequently found that blowing a hundred 
large eggs in an evening was no light task, and it occurred to me 
