OCCASIONAL NOTES. 71 



existing ; once he had, no doubt, but they are dead, and L. dominicanus of 

 the Southern Hemisphere is perhaps his nearest snrviving relative."— Ed.] 

 Iceland Gull and Great Grey Shrike in Somerset.— The Iceland 

 Gull visits this county so seldom that it seems worthy of a passing notice 

 when it does so. I therefore send a note of the occurrence of°one at 

 Somerton, in this county, on the 12th of December. I saw the bird at 

 Mrs. Petherick's, the bird-stuffer, at Taunton, on the 14th. She also 

 showed me a note which was sent with it, stating that it had been shot at 

 Somerton on the date above-mentioned, and that the owner wished the Sea 

 Gull which was sent with the letter made into a screen for a lady, in the 

 same way Mrs. Petherick had done once before for him. Like the writer of 

 the letter, Mrs. Petherick was rather hazy about the identity of the bird as 

 she called it a "sea gull" when she showed it to me, and asked what it 

 was, having some idea, she said, that it was a young Black-back. I put her 

 right as to the identity, and told her to try to get it for the Archfeoloaical 

 and Natural History Museum at Taunton, as I knew there was°not 

 one there; but the owner stuck to his former order, and desired it to be 

 made into that receptacle for moth and dust, a feather fire-screen, in which 

 state I saw the bird yesterday. It was a young bird in the first year's 

 plumage. Though occurring as an occasional straggler almost every year 

 on the south coast of Devon, this is only the second Iceland Gull I have 

 heard of as occurring in Somerset ; the first was at Weston-super-Mare on 

 the 28th of December, 1870, and was recorded by me in ' The Zoologist' 

 for 1871. It was in more mature plumage than the subject of the present 

 notice; probably as near as possible one year older, for some of the pale a rey 

 feathers were making their appearance on the back, and the primaries were 

 not nearly so much marked with pale brown. Whether this bird had 

 wandered inland as far as Somerton, which is almost in the middle of the 

 county, rather nearer the borders of Dorset than the Bristol Channel 

 by itself, or accompanied a flock of Herring or Common Gulls, large flocks 

 of both of which have been unusually numerous in the ploughed fields 

 and newly-sown wheat, I have not been able to ascertain. A Great 

 Grey Shrike was killed at Ilchester, on the 12th of this month, the same 

 day as the Iceland Gull, and was also shown me in the flesh at Mrs 

 Petherick's ; it is not, however, nearly so uncommon a visitor to this county 

 —Cecil Smith (Bishop's Lydeard, Taunton). 



Effects of a Snowstorm on Animal Life in the Transvaal - 

 On the 27th of August, 188 J, and two successive days, we had the most 

 wonderful snow-storm here, the heaviest ever known to have fallen in 

 this country; I do not remember to have seen much heavier at home whilst 

 it lasted. A good many natives and a few white men lost their lives being 

 overtaken by it in the open country ; very many persons, more especially 

 B the Orange Free State, are ruined, or nearly so, by the almost total los's 



