24 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vii. 



water for about five yards with great rapidity. On coming 

 to the surface they floated very lightly on the water, and 

 paddled quietly to a pier of rough stones near by, where they 

 landed. When swimming under water they were clearly 

 seen to use their wings as well as their legs as a means of 

 propulsion. J. G. Gordon. 



[The diving and swimming powers of both young and adult 

 Common Sandpipers are of course well known, and need 

 no corroboration. 1 can however quite confirm what 

 Mr. Gordon saj^s as to the use of the wings, when under 

 water, by the young of this species, having observed it more 

 than once. On one occasion whUe fishing in Norway, 

 I disturbed a brood of half -grown young ones on the sandy 

 shore of a lake ; two of these at once took to the water, 

 which was about a foot deep — clear, and bottomed by white 

 sand, so that as I stood in the water I could watch their 

 every movement from directly above. The wings were 

 fully extended and moved in regular up-and-down strokes, 

 exactly as is done by certain diving birds. — ^N.F.T.] 



PROBABLE SCANDINAVIAN LESSER BLACK-BACKED 

 GULLS IN NORFOLK. 



Since Dr. Percy Lowe called attention to the fact of their 

 probably being two races of European Lesser Black-backed 

 Gulls, namely a Scandinavian or eastern dark-backed race 

 [Larus fuscus fuscus) and a western light-backed form {Larus 

 fuscus britannicus or affinis), I have paid particular attention 

 to this Gull upon the coast of Norfolk. Unfortunately it 

 is not a common bird here, and being also very wary, I have 

 so far not been very successful in obtaining specimens. 



I have, however, on one or two occasions seen Lesser 

 Black-backed Gulls with what appeared to me to be dark 

 mantles, and on May 1st, 1913, 1 am perfectly satisfied in 

 my own mind that I saw two examples of this dark-backed 

 race. 



On this day I was on Breydon with Mr. A. P. Sherlock 

 in a gun -punt, and seeing through glasses some Gulls which 

 looked like Lesser Black-backs amongst a mixed flock of 

 Greater Black-backs, Common and Black-headed Gulls on 

 a strip of mud, we " lay to " them, and got within about 

 twenty-five yards. 



There were four adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls, the 

 yellow legs of all four being very conspicuous. Two had 

 mantles of a slate or dark french-grey, and two of a dark 

 slaty-black, as dark or darker than that of a Greater Black- 



