OCCASIONAL NOTES. 231 
erown of the head, nearly to its termination in a slight crest, the latter 
made more apparent when curled up by puffs of wind. The dull red of 
the neck merging into the dark colour of the back and wings, and blending 
below with mottled markings into the pure white of the breast. Under 
parts pure white, joining the conspicuous white patch on the wing (the 
secondaries). On examining the specimens in the British Museum, this 
bird appeared to correspond most closely in size and colour with that 
recently added to the collection by Mr. Sharpe, and obtained from the 
North of Europe, but the under parts were more purely white than in that 
example. The Grebe was on the same piece of water the following day, 
but too distant for satisfactory observation; on being disturbed it flew 
with considerable power, alighting again in the middle of the pond; by the 
next day it had left. I may mention that on January 30th about thirty 
Herons returned to the heronry in the woods of the Wanstead Estate.— 
Arraur Lister (Leytonstone). 
[So far as our experience goes, the Rednecked Grebe is the rarest of all 
the Grebes that reside in or visit the British Islands, and is only found 
here in winter. We have occasionally met with it in the tidal harbours 
and creeks of the Sussex coast when out after wild-fowl in January and 
February, but have never seen more than one or two together at a time. 
It rarely remains here late enough in spring to display the complete 
breeding plumage.—Eb. | 
VaRIETY OF THE Sand Marrin.—At p. 106 Mr. Corbin mentions the 
occurrence of a variety of the Sand Martin. My father has in his possession 
a peculiar variety of this bird, which I caught a few years ago. I first saw 
it hawking for flies in the vicinity of a water-worn bank, in which a some- 
what numerous colony breed annually, and after watching its untiring— 
though in my judgment not very happy—motions for some time, I at last 
succeeded in capturing it in one of the nests. Its darker relations seemed 
to regard it with intense dislike, chasing it with more or less anger whenever 
it came near them. In this bird the upper plumage is of an uniform bluish 
white, the lower parts from the beak to the vent of a pure glossy white.— 
EK. P. Burrerrievp (Wilsden). 
Wauire Sxy Lark anp order Brrps near Yorx.—Mr. Ripley, the 
birdstuffer here, has lately received for preservation a Hawfinch, a pure 
white Sky Lark, and a pied Blackbird. The Hawfinch, a female, was shot 
during the early part of February, within four or five miles of York: it is 
rather a rare bird here. The Sky Lark, which I found to be a female, was 
shot on Askham Bog near here, about the 15th of the same month. The 
whole of its plumage was pure white: the bill, legs, and claws were 
extremely light-coloured, but the iris was rather dark. The Blackbird, a 
male, was shot about the same time, not far from here, and it was rather 
curiously pied. The neck and head were pure white, with the exception of 
