NOTES AND QUERIES. 309 
sternum, measured along the curve: No. 1, 1:25 in.; No. 2, 1°75 in. 
Keel, measured in a straight line: No. 1, 1:20 in.; No. 2, 1°65 in. Length 
of sternum and coracoids: No. 1, 2°05 in.; No. 2, 2°50in. The smaller 
sternum I took from a male, procured here in November last, which 
measured in the flesh 10°3 in. in length; wing, 4°2 in.; bill, from the 
gape, 1:4 in. I did not obtain the skin of the bird from which the larger 
bone was taken, but it was an average large-sized example, certainly 
nothing out of the ordinary way, and apparently about the size of an 
example shot here in December, 1878, the skin of which measures 
11-9 in.; wing, 4:8 in.; bill, from gape, 1‘7 in. A male from Sussex, 
November, 1883, measured in the flesh 12-0 in.; wing, 4°8 in.; Dill, 
from gape, 1:8 in. Although the larger birds are (here at least) much 
more commonly met with, I have seen several examples of the smaller one 
lately, and obtained another sternum not any longer than that described 
here.—Oxtver V. Apiin (Great Bourton, Oxon). 
Young Rooks with white Chins.—For some years past I have noticed 
that a considerable number of the young Rooks shot at Rook-shooting time 
have a small spot of white between the rami of the lower mandible—that 
is to say, on the chin. This peculiarity is well known to Rook-shooters, 
but, so far as I am aware, it has hitherto escaped the notice of ornithologists. 
This spring, therefore, I have been endeavouring to learn what proportion 
of the birds have the white spot, and whether it is in any way a mark of 
sex. The area covered by the white feathers varies much in size. For it 
to be as large as a farthing is exceptional. Often there are only a few 
stray white feathers. One which I have seen, however, had the spot as 
large as a halfpenny. The beaks of those birds having the white spot are 
generally much lighter in colour than the beaks of those without it. Of 
thirteen young Rooks shot at this place one evening during the third week 
in May no less than nine had the white spot. Of 111 examined a few days 
later, in company with Mr. H. L. Wilson, on one of the stalls in Birmingham 
Market, only forty-one had the spot, while the remaining seventy had not, 
Of fifty-eight examined on another stall (in all probability from a different 
rookery) twenty-eight had the spot, while thirty had not. Altogether, 
therefore, out of 191 birds examined, seventy-eight (or considerably less 
than one-half) had the white chin spot. We opened three of those with the 
spot, of which two were females and one a male. ‘Two without the spot 
proved a male and a female. Clearly, therefore, the presence or absence of 
the spot is no guide to the sex of a bird. This curious white spot is of 
interest in connection with the discussion formerly carried on as to the 
cause of Rooks losing the feathers round the base of the bill, for it 
should be noted that these white feathers are among those which are lost 
in the adult bird. The only reference to the white spot which Mr. Wilson 
or myself have discovered is by Mr. Morris, who, speaking of white and pied 
