NOTES AND QUERIES. 501 



I have only ouce observed it inland in the winter months. This was about 

 the middle of November last year, when I saw several in a field near here 

 in company with some Common Gulls ; there was frost at the time. It is 

 much less numerous than the other gulls, but may posssibly occur more 

 frequently here in winter. At any rate, it does not appear to be the usual 

 habit of this bird to come inland here in winter to feed ; in tbe spring, 

 however, from about the first week of April until nearly the end of June, 

 when one would expect these gulls to be at their nesting quarters, a pair or 

 a single one in adult plumage may be seen almost every day flying up the 

 Grand Canal, at no great height over it. T have seen them following the 

 Canal at several places between here and Dublin, as well as in this neigh- 

 bourhood, and have frequently watched them flying back seawards in the 

 evening. At the same season a few of these gulls may also be seen 

 frequenting the river in the city among the shipping, and I recollect having 

 once in spring seen about a dozen — the greatest number I ever saw together 

 — flying about over the Custom House Docks, and resting on the roofs of 

 some adjacent sheds. Perhaps those we see here in the breeding season 

 may be barren birds ; but it is remarkable that the time one would expect 

 them to be away at their breeding haunts is the only time we have them 

 in the parts frequented by the Herring Gulls in the winter. So far as my 

 experience goes, the Lesser Black-backed Gull is at no time common on 

 the Dublin coast. Once (on April 6th, 1879) I met with four near Malahide ; 

 they were flying northwards, following the shore-line, and were well within 

 gunshot. They passed a group of Herring Gulls on the sands, and neither 

 appeared to take any notice of the other ; and on the 2nd June, in the same 

 year, I watched for a long time a pair of these gulls sailing about in the air 

 along with large numbers of Herring Gulls, on the east side of Lambay. 

 I expect they were nesting there, and may have been put up from their 

 nests by us, as were a great many Guillemots, Razorbills, Herring Gulls, 

 and Puffins ; but there was little likelihood of that point being settled in 

 the too limited time at our disposal, for the Lesser Black-backed Gulls 

 remain on the wing for a long time. They seem to be perpetually on the 

 wing ; I have rarely seen them alight. This is a point, too, in which these 

 birds are strikingly different from the Herring Gulls, the latter spending 

 most of their time, whether on the sands or in the fields, standing in large 

 groups with a stately and dignified composure. — J. E. Palmer (Lyons Mills, 

 Straffan, Co. Kildare). 



White-tailed Eagle in South Lincolnshire.— On November 2nd an 

 immature specimen of Haliaetus albicilla was shot in South Lincolnshire. 

 It is a male in dark plumage, with dark mottled tail. It was in good 

 condition, but the maw was perfectly empty. The measurements are — total 

 length from tip of bill to end of tail, 3 ft. ; expanse of wings, 7 ft. 2 in. — 

 J. Cullingfokd (University Museum, Durham). 



