304 MISCELLANEA. 



1st October. The Swallows in Warkworth are all gathered 

 together and sitting on the telegraph wires. It looks as 

 though their departure was at hand. I observe one House 

 Martin in the air. 



2nd October. I see nothing of either Swallows or House 

 Martins. 



37'd October. Again I see nothing of these birds, so I con- 

 clude they must have gone on Saturday shortly after I saw 

 them together on the wires. — W. Mark Fybus. 



Though most of the Swifts leave us quite suddenly and 

 completely towards the end of August, a straggler or two is 

 almost every year to be seen at the beginning of September. 

 This year I saw one flying round over Claremont Place and 

 the Leazes, Newcastle, on September 8th. This is the latest 

 date on which I have yet seen a Swift, though many later 

 records are quoted in the books. On October 27th Mr. H. V. 

 Charlton saw some House Martins flying about over the 

 Town Moor Recreation Ground, and I saw a single Swallow 

 over the Leazes on October 31st. — E. L. Gill. 



Birds in Abnormal Pluniage. — Recent donations to the 

 museum include several examples of birds showing variations 

 in plumage. Some are cases of partial albinism. Of these 

 the most singular is a male Wheatear shot on the moor at 

 Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, and presented by Mr. J. Alaric 

 Richardson; it has the body mostly of a light blue grey, 

 tinged on the throat with pale rust colour ; the wing feathers 

 are brown with light edges. A pale brown variety of the 

 Starling, presented by Mr. J. I. Maling, was also shot on 

 Newbiggin Moor on October 5th, 1904; and Mr. G. E. Craw- 

 hall has presented a young Hedge Sparrow in abnormally 

 light coloured plumage, which was killed near Haydon Bridge 

 on July 17th. Mr. Crawhall has made another extremely 

 interesting addition to the museum collection in the form of 

 two hen Pheasants showing the plumage of the cock. Both 

 were shot near Haydon Bridge, and as is usual in such cases 

 both proved to have the ovaries diseased. One is in an early 



