NOTES AND QUERIES. 109 
miles from Oxford. It was a male bird, one of the dark type, and rather 
alarge one, measuring 2lin. On Feb. 8th a Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) 
made its appearance at Merton, near Bicester, and of course was shot. It 
also proved to be a male, in good condition. Both are now being preserved 
by Mr. Darbey, 5, Market Street, who informs me it is a long time since 
he has had either species brought to him for preservation.—Arruur H. 
Macruerson (Trinity College, Oxford). 
Ivory Gull and Little Auk in Caithness——A mature specimen of 
the Ivory Gull was shot at Bishop’s Castle, Thurso, on the 30th December 
last, by Mr. J. G. Millais, then on a visit to this county (Caithness). This 
gull is but a rare visitor to Britain, although I know of several specimens 
having been got in Orkney and Shetland. The first authenticated instance 
of the occurrence of the Ivory Gull in this county is recorded (Mem. 
Wern. Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. iv. p. 501) by Mr. Lawrence Edmondston, 
whose talented communications to various learned societies and scientific 
journals have rendered invaluable service in the way of illustrating 
the Ornithology of his native county. Mr. Edmondston’s specimen was 
a bird of the second year, and was shot in Balta Sound in December, 
1822. The late Mr. Strang, of Sanday, a gentleman who did for 
Orkney much the same as Mr. Edmondston did for Shetland, shot a 
specimen of the Ivory Gull in the Bay of Firth, Orkney, in 1832, and 
another shot in Orkney, November 27th, the same year, was exhibited at a 
meeting of the Zoological Society of London. I examined another shot at 
Kirkwall by the late Mr. Rankin, of that place, in 1849. Early in January 
I saw a fine lively specimen of the Little Auk, which had taken shelter 
inland a few hundred yards from our stormy bay during an easterly gale. 
This species is much more numerous in the Orkney Islands after a westerly 
gale than they appear to be here, and in the former county they can always 
find shelter in some of its numerous bays or on the lee side of an island, 
which they cannot do here.—W. Reap ( Wick). 
[Of late years the Ivory Gull has been more often observed. Twenty- 
two instances of its occurrence are particularized in our ‘ Handbook of 
British Birds,’ pp. 174, 175, of which four relate to Orkney, Shetland, and 
Caithness.—Eb. | 
Hybrid Finches.—As hybrids between Bullfinch and Goldfinch are 
probably of somewhat rare occurrence, it may be well to place on record 
the fact that two such hybrids, both cocks, bred from Goldfinch cock and 
Bullfinch hen, were in the possession of Mr. John Beach, of Little Horton 
Lane, Bradford, in 1858, and were exhibited by him at a Bird Show at the 
Crystal Palace in November of that year. Both birds were stated to be 
then four months old. A hybrid between Goldfinch and Greenfinch, aged 
about two years and six months, was exhibited by Mr. Hugh Hanley, of the 
