470 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



vigorously, disappearing for a moment right under the surface. Dr. Fletcher, 

 of Edinburgh, was with me at the time, and, as neither of us had previously 

 seen the Manx Shearwater dive, we watched the proceedings for some time 

 through our binoculars. I may add that a fisherman of the island, who 

 knows this bird well, told me afterwards that had sometimes seeu it dive, 

 although it more often dipped only its head and upper parts under water, 

 leaving its tail exposed like a duck. It is certainly a habit in which tt does 

 not very frequently indulge, for when disturbed or frightened it invariably 

 escapes by flight. — Arthur H. Macpherson. 



Food of the Manx Shearwater. — The inference drawn by Mr. Gawen 

 (p. 426) from my remarks (p. 374) is misleading, and requires correction. 

 It is not the case, as he supposes, that the Shearwater whose food I 

 examined had been feeding on offal, and his assertion that bones were 

 absent is not warranted by what I wrote. Your readers may rest assured 

 that the bird had been feeding, as I distinctly stated, on fresh fish, — probably 

 the young of the Coalfish. The bill of this Shearwater, instead of being 

 " weak," as alleged by Mr. Gawen, is a very powerful instrument, and is 

 used in excavating the Shearwater's long burrows in the soil. — H. A. 

 Macpherson (Carlisle). 



Food of the Manx Shearwater.— I was surprised to see, from the 

 remarks of Mr. H. A. Macpherson (p. 3 74) and Mr. C. R. Gawen (p. 426), 

 that there is still any doubt as to the nature of the food of the Manx 

 Shearwater. The first Shearwaters I ever shot (over thirty years ago, off 

 Cork Harbour) fully and satisfactorily proved to me that their food is much 

 more substantial than oil floating on the surface of the water. Wounded 

 birds, when closely pursued, disgorged solid matter, as Gulls do, to lighten 

 them when trying to get away; and one bird, on being seized hold of, 

 threw up two full-grown sprats and the entrails of some fish which had been 

 evidently thrown overboard from one of the fishing-boats at anchor close 

 by. — Robert Warren (Moyview, Ballina). 



Swans with white Cygnets. — I should like to place on record the 

 fact that during the past year the pair of tame Swans whose abnormal 

 broods I have before mentioned (Zool. 1887, pp. 463, 464) produced seven 

 cygnets, of which three were of the usual colour, and four were white. 

 I saw them alive a few days since in their ditch in the grounds of St. John's 

 College. — Alfred Newton (Magdalene College, Cambridge). 



