The Zoologist — January, 1868. 1031 



the man, not knowing its value, pitched it into the ditch. The 

 parish ratcatcher, hearing of the bird, went the next morning to get it 

 for his ferrets; however, it stunk so, as he said, that he dare not use 

 it for that purpose, but, noticing the curious bill of the " gull," carried 

 it home on the end of a pointed stick and exhibited it to the rector, 

 who at once recognized it as a rare capture. A large bird was shot 

 in the same parish about six weeks since ; unfortunately the skin was 

 destroyed : from the description given me I have no doubt it was a 

 gannet. In ray idea the strong smell peculiar to the Fulmar petrel is 

 anything but disagreeable : I found it impossible to distinguish it 

 from musk. 



White Starling and Pied Blackbird. — I saw to-day (November 

 23rd) a pure white starling, which was shot in this district. A friend 

 informs me that he has lately frequently seen a pied blackbird in his 

 garden : he described the entire back of the bird as pure white. 



Wood Pigeon. — November 27. In the crop of a wood pigeon, shot 

 this evening, I. found several hundred grains of barley, a considerable 

 quantity of the seeds of the common cow-parsnip {Heracleum Sphon- 

 dylium), and several seeds of that troublesome weed the goose-grass 

 {Galium Aparine). 



John Cordeaux. 



Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 

 December 4, 1867. 



Ornithological Notes from West Sussex. 

 By W. Jeffery, Jan., Esq. 



(Continued from Zool. S. S. 814). 



June— November, 1867. 



House Martin. — Mr. Cordeaux remarks (Zool. S. S. 808) on the 

 scarcity of house martins this year in his district, in Lincolnshire. I 

 certainly cannot say the same of this immediate locality, for I have 

 counted more than fifty nests around the eaves of one building. It is 

 a curious fact that a species should suddenly become so scarce in 

 certain districts. Some time ago Mr. Boulton recorded, in the pages 

 of the ' Zoologist,' the scarcity of the swift in the neighbourhood of 

 Beverley, in Yorkshire, and I do not remember that any satisfactory 

 conclusion was arrived at as to the cause. May we not look either to 

 their winter quarters on their passage thence or hence for a solution ? 



