4802 Tur ZooLocist— FEBRUARY, 1876. 
times specimens of this variety, but I do not remember ever seeing one so 
dark as the present. ‘The upper part of the head, forehead and occiput are 
black, with a faint shade of umber-brown extending in a narrow list down 
the back part of the neck; this colour—rather lighter in tone—pervades 
the whole of the part of the face between the eyes and beak, forming a blotch. 
Chin pale ash-brown, immaculate; sides of the breast to the flanks dark 
brown, with the feathers margined with buff-yellow; centre part of the 
breast down to the belly between the legs without margined feathers, dull 
light brown, mixed with buff; belly deep ashy brown, immaculate, extending 
to under tail-coverts and vent, where the feathers are again well-defined, 
with buff borders. Length of tarsus, one inch and one-eighth; of middle 
toe, one inch and three-eighths. The feathers on the back are ovate, becoming 
slightly elongated, with a defined point towards the lower part, but in no 
way approaching the form of the lanceolate scapularies of the other two 
species of common snipe. The black colour of the upper part of the head is 
well shown in the plate of Sabine’s snipe in Bewick’s later edition. Ina 
former communication to the ‘ Zoologist’ I mentioned my having detected 
fourteen tail-feathers in a specimen I examined, thus supporting the opinion 
that S. Sabini has no specific value, and is only a variety of the common 
snipe: it is quite clear that the present bird is a fourteen-tail-feathered 
example. This bird was shot by Mr. John Edward Dennis, of Lariggan, 
near Penzance, and he described the bird as having risen in a wild open 
moor near the celebrated Lanyon Cromlech, and as having uttered the same 
lisping notes two or three times—exactly similar to the well-known notes 
of the common snipe.—Edward Hearle Rodd; Penzance, January 5, 1876. 
Dunlins Inland.—On the 12th of December we received a common dunlin 
from Lower Earlham, near Norwich, which is over twenty miles from the 
sea-coast at its nearest point. Its appearance in such a locality was probably 
the result of the hard weather. We have also had specimens from the 
adjacent parishes of Hellesdon and Keswick at the same period of the 
year.—J. H. Gurney, jun. 
Gray Phalarope near Kingsbridge.x—On the 17th of December a boy 
caught a female specimen of the gray phalarope on the mud in the 
Estuary: it was in such poor condition that it could scarcely fly—R. P. 
Nicholls ; Kingsbridge, December 21, 1876. 
The Edible Qualities of the Shoveller Duck.—Tastes differ, or else the 
edible qualities of shovellers vary much in different countries. The Rey. 
M. A. Mathew says:—‘‘ And here a word in praise of the flavour of the 
shoveller, which is quite equal to the well-known delicacy of the teal, if-it 
does not even surpass it” (Zool. S. 8. 8826). And again another corre- _ 
spondent remarks, ‘It is one of the best, if not the very best, of the edible 
ducks” (S. 8.6923). With such strong testimony in its favour, I am rather 
surprised that we scarcely found them worth shooting in Egypt. We did 
