Vol. xxxvili. | 14. 
Chicken (Neophron percnopterus) obtained in the British 
Islands. This example was shot by the Rev. John Matthew 
in October 1825 at Kilve, a village on the Somersetshire 
coast, about five miles east of Watchet. Mr. Matthew was 
then a young man and was serving as curate to his father, 
of the same name. He mounted the bird himself, and it 
remained in his possession till about 1874, when he gave it 
to his son, Mr. C. Mordaunt Matthew, M.B., who in 
September last presented the bird to the Natural History 
Museum. 
The bird was remounted by Messrs. Cook, taxidermists, 
about 1880. 
It is mentioned in the first edition of Yarrell and in all 
subsequent lists of British Birds, and is therefore of very 
considerable value and interest. 
Mr. Scrater also exhibited the skin of a melanistic phase 
of the Great Skua (Catharacta skua) and made the following 
remarks :— 
This bird was picked up dead near the Windrush river at 
Burford, Oxfordshire, and was forwarded by Mr. W. J. 
Polley of Burford to the office of ‘Land and Water’ for 
identification. It was brought to the Museum and finally 
presented to that Institution by Mr. Polley. 
The dusky phase of the Great Skua seems to be very 
rare and there is nothing like it in the British Museum. 
At first I thought it might be an example of the Antarctic 
Skua (C. antarctica), but my attention was called by 
Mr. Wells to the plate in Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe,’ in 
which a similar phase is depicted, and I have now little 
doubt but that it is a dusky form of the Great Skua. 
When the bird was skinned it was found to be very 
emaciated. The stomach was quite empty, and as there 
were uo signs of injury the bird probably died of 
starvation. 
The Great Skua is very seldom found inland or, indeed, 
anywhere in England, and it is therefore of interest to record 
its occurrence as well as its curious coloration, 
