70 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



markings of the same colour. He thus writes to me on the subject : — " My 

 friend Henderson procured the eggs about May 1st, 1877, at Dunessan, 

 in Mull, and gave them to me on the day I arrived there (May 5th). He 

 took the two eggs out of one nest ; there were three eggs in the nest, but 

 he broke one in blowing it. He had taken some marked very similarly a 

 few days before out of a nest in which there were eggs of the usual marking. 

 I did not come across any of these unusual eggs myself, though I examined 

 at least fifty nests." — Robert H. Mitford (Weston Lodge, Hampstead). 



Colour of the Legs in Lesser Black-backed Gull. — On October 

 3rd a specimen of the Lesser Black-backed Gull was shot on Dovercourt 

 Beach. It is in mature plumage, but with this peculiarity : oue leg and 

 foot is of a bright yellow colour, whiilst the other is a pale flesh.colour. 

 Can this bird be a hybrid between a Greater and a Lesser Black-backed or 

 a Herring Gull, as mentioned by Mr. Cecil Smith (Zool. 1881, p. 450). — 

 F. Kerry (Harwich). 



The owner of the specimen writes: — "On the 3rd October last, 

 while staying at Dovercourt, Essex, I shot a Gull in mature plumage, 

 of which the following is a description: — Length from back to tail, 

 inclusive, nineteen inches ; height, fourteen inches; beak, light yellow, with 

 a red spot in the apex of the lower mandible ; eyes, straw-coloured, with a 

 black pupil ; head, breast and tail, white ; mantle and wings, brownish 

 black ; the longest feather only of the primaries has a white spot near its 

 tip ; the secondaries have an angled, thread-like, white fringe ; the under 

 feathers of the middle and large wing-coverts have white edges ; and lastly, 

 one leg is yellow and the other is flesh-colour. Is this likely to be a hybrid 

 between the Lesser and Greater Black-backed Gulls? I should be obliged 

 if any of your readers could give some information on the subject." — 

 C. A. Marriot (11, George Lane, Lewisham, Kent). 



[Mr. Howard Saunders, to whom we have submitted the foregoing, 

 writes as follows : — " Judging from the description, the Gull is probably a 

 Lesser Black-back, Larus fuscus, which has only recently assumed the 

 adult plumage, probably at the last moult, for there is a sub-apical white 

 spot or speculum on the first primary only, whereas if it was a really old 

 bird it would also have a small speculum on the second primary. The 

 variation in the colour of the two legs is interesting, but I do not consider 

 that it in any way indicates that this example is a hybrid between L. fuscus 

 and L. marinus. I do not believe in hybrid Gulls in a wild state, and in 

 spite of the one point of resemblance, viz., the dark mantle, yet, in other 

 respects, the Lesser and the Greater Black-backs are far wider apart than 

 L. fuscus is from the Larus an/eulatus group, with the allied L. cachinnans, 

 L. ajfinis, and L. occidentaiis, which is confined to the coasts of California > 

 British Columbia, &c. But Lttrus marinus has no very near allies still 



