30 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
WoaseEL assuuine A Wuire Winter Coat.—On November 25th, 1878, 
a female Weasel was killed at Northrepps, Norfolk, which was evidently 
assuming a white winter coat, a circumstance which is very rare in the 
Weasel, though not uncommon in the Stoat. In this specimen the front 
and sides of the head are already quite white, and white hairs are appearing 
amongst the brown ones, in all those parts of the animal which are 
normally brown, and especially on the flanks and tail.—J. H. Gurney 
(Northrepps Hall, Norwich). 
OccURRENCE OF THE BLACK-THROATED WHEATEAR IN LANCGASHIRE.— 
At a meeting of the Zoological Society held on the 9th November last, 
Mr. Sclater exhibited a specimen of the Black-throated Wheatear, Saaicola 
stapazina, which had been shot at Bury, in Lancashire, on or about the 
8th May, 1875, and read an extract concerning it from a notice communicated 
by Mr. R. Davenport, of Bury, to ‘ Science Gossip’ of October Ist, 1878. 
From this communication, and from subsequent correspondence with 
Mr. Davenport (Proc. Zool. Soe., 3rd Dec., 1878), it appears that the bird 
in question was shot by Mr. David Page, of Bury, on the margin of the 
Bury and Radcliffe Reservoir, and was taken in the flesh to Mr. Wright 
Johnson, of Prestwick, to be mounted. Mr. Johnson ascertained the sex by 
dissection to bea male. This is believed to be the first time this bird has 
been met with in the British Islands. It is figured by Mr. Dresser (‘ Birds 
of Europe,’ part xxv.), under the name Saaicola rufa.—J. KE. Harrine. 
Sapine’s Snipe in Lancasnrre.—I have just set up an adult female 
Sabine’s Snipe, which was killed near Rufford, twelve miles from Liverpool, 
during the second week of December, and was brought to me along with a 
Spotted Crake. I have preserved the ovary for my own collection, and, 
without breaking the egg-bag, counted 268 eggs; whence it appears to me 
that it is one of the most abundantly supplied wild birds I know. The 
form of the ovary in Sabine’s Snipe is peculiar; it is broadest at the top, 
narrowing down to two eggs in width, like a long narrow bunch of grapes, 
three-sixteenths of an inch wide at the top, and fully three-eighths of an inch 
long. I have taken care also of the sternum. The severe weather of the 
second week of December brought myriads of birds to our flat coast. My 
warren man supplied to our market six hundred dozens of Sky Larks, all of 
which passed under my eye, yet there was not the variation of a feather 
amongst them. Fieldfares and Redwings are abundant, while Song 
Thrushes are in hundreds—aye, thousands—C, S Gregson (Rose Bank, 
Fletcher Grove, Liverpool). 
