26 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vti. 



Hon. Walter Rothschild exhibited four females and a male 

 in this curious plumage. Three of the females and the male 

 were purchased in Cambridge Market in 1889, and were said 

 to have come from Elveden Hall, while the other female \\as 

 obtained some years later in Leadenhall Market. It is a 

 remarkable fact that all these females exactly match 

 Mr. Johnson-Ferguson's specimen, so much so that one 

 would think they belonged to a distinct species or were the 

 result of some definite cross. Mr. Rothschild agrees with 

 me that they are not the result of hybridization, and he 

 regards them as a counterpart of the dark variety of Snipe 

 kno^vn as Sabine's Snipe. 



If they are the result of an excess of black and red pigment 

 it is surely an extraordinary coincidence that these pigments 

 should be so nicely balanced as to produce the same pat- 

 tern and shade of colouring in all these specimens. It 

 seems to me that they should be regarded as instances of 

 discontinuous variation or mutation. H. F. Witherby. 



Uncommon Birds in the Moray area. — ^Miss A. C. 

 Jackson records {Scot. Nat., 1913, pp. 92 and 93) the following 

 rarities for this part of Scotland : A Little Stint {Erolia m. 

 minuta) on the Beauly Firth on September 23rd, 1912, a 

 Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lohatus) on the same 

 Firth on October 22nd, a G-reat Crested Grebe (Colymbus c. 

 cristatus) at the same place on October 26tli, a Green 

 Sandpiper {Tringa ocrophus) on the Cromarty Firth on 

 November 1st, 1912, a Leach's Fork -tailed Petrel (Oceanodroma 

 leucorhoa) on the Beauly Firth on November 11th, and some 

 Roseate Terns (Sterna d. dougalli) " in a certain locality " at 

 the end of June, 1912. This last record is perhaps the most 

 interesting, as the date points to the likelUiood of breeding. 



Carrion-Crow reported from Ireland. — ^In the Irish 

 Naturalist (1913, p. 43) Mr. G. C. May stated that Mr. F. Mason 

 and his son had seen a Carrion-Crow (Gorvus c. corone) on 

 Lambay Island off co. Dublin. Some doubts as to the 

 correctness of the identification having been expressed 

 (t. c, pp. 83-4) Mr. Mason writes (p. 99) that the bird was at 

 Lambay from about the middle of December, 1912, to the 

 first week of March, 1913, that he was frequently within 

 shot of it, that it kept apart from the Rooks, and that its 

 " caw " was quite different. He also states that his son Hved 

 as a keeper in Yorkshire, and had there shot Carrion-Crows. 



Tree-Sparrows in co. Kildare. — ^Miss H. M. Metcalfe 

 states (Irish Nat., 1913, p. 82) that she watched a party of 

 seven Passer m. montanus, of which she gives an accurate 



