NOTES AND QUERIES. 



73 



were addled — a coincidence highly suggestive considering the rarity 

 of the occurrence of more than one infertile egg in a Willow- Wren's 

 nest. (I have no note of the 1909 nest,) In the description of the 

 wood it should have been stated that there was no definite slope in 

 the ground likely to produce appreciable effect on the direction of the 

 nest-opening, but of course there are other factors to be taken into 

 account. — S. E. Brock (Kirkliston, Linlithgowshire). 



Variety of the Gannet. — By the kindness of Mr. Riley Fortune I 

 am able to give a photograph of the singular Gannet which he 

 and Mr. J. Atkinson detected on the Bass Rock on July 24th, 1910. 

 The photograph is one of several taken at the time by Mr. Fortune, 

 and shows the disposition of the markings on the back and wings very 



Vauiety of Gannet. 



well. It also shows the tail of the bird to be white, which is usually 

 accepted as a mark of the complete adult plumage, for in the ordinary 

 course of its moult the tail is the last part of a Gannet's plumage to 

 turn white. At the Bass Rock and elsewhere I have frequently seen 

 Gannets which were not quite adult, but which retained a little black 

 on the tail and nowhere else, the rest of the body having become white. 

 This peculiar Solan Goose has excited a great deal of interest, and 

 Zool. Mh ser. vol. XV.. February, 1911, q 



