6978 Birds. 



as if cut out. Temminck had noticed this, for he says, "remiges terminees par un 

 grand espace blanc." 



Ash-coloured Sandpiper {Tringa cinerea). When in soundings, off Newfoundland, 

 several flocks of light gray birds, of this species I believe, — which Wilson says is in 

 summer " of a pale drab or dun-colour," — were seen skimming over the water, with a 

 rapid and direct flight. Though frequently passing at no great distance, they were at 

 times scareely discernible amid the white-capped undulating waves; so possibly they 

 may have been the sanderling plover. 



Kittiwake [Larus tridactylm). June 9th : observed a few gulls of a different spe- 

 cies. June lOtli : the small gulls, seen yesterday, are still following us, and prove to 

 be kittiwakes. The wings are elongated and tipped with black ; the back of a darkish 

 gray. Bill short and of a light horn-colour; the head and the whole of the under 

 parts pure white. Feet and tarsi black. 



Gannet {Sula alba). June 11th, 6 a.m.: in view of the north-west coast of Ire- 

 land ; at II, a.m., when abreast of Tory Island, saw some small flocks of gannets, 

 flying in files like geese. 



Guillemot (Uria troile). June 11th : great numbers of these birds were seen ; 

 and seemingly so little heeding the approach of the steamer, that they were frequently 

 almost under the bows before taking wing or diving. 



It may appear somewhat strange that so few birds are seen in a voyage of two 

 thousand miles, but it should be borne in mind that in the fathomless ocean their 

 means of subsistence must be very precarious, and that the glaucous gull, which, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Richardson (see Macgillivray, vol. ii. p. 560), swallows two aulis at a 

 meal, would necessarily in its wide-world wanderings be reduced to more humble fare, 

 even vegetable diet, — a share of the gulf-weed, with the stortn petrel, for instance. On 

 the outward passage I did not meet with a greater variety, for though there was a dark 

 gull seen, it was probably the young of Larus leucopterus, though apparently some- 

 what larger than the adult, but the dusky plumage may have deceived me as to its 

 size, for I was at first inclined to believe that it was an immature glaucous, which is 

 described by Temminck as having " les nuances generales des teintes grises et 

 brunes." — Id. 



On the Nidification of the Kingfisher (Alcedo Ispida). — Ornithologists are divided 

 in opinion as to whether the fish-bones found in the cavity in which the kingfisher 

 deposits its eggs are to be considered in the light of a nest, or as merely the castings 

 from the bird during the period of incubation. Some are disposed to consider these 

 bones as entirely the castings and faeces of the young brood of the year before they 

 quit the nest, and that the same hole being frequented for a succession of years, a 

 great mass is at length formed; while others believe that they are deposited by the 

 parents as a platform for the eggs, constituting in flict a nest ; in which latter view I 

 fully concur, and the following are my reasons for so doing: — On the 18th of the past 

 month of April, during one of my fishing excursions on the Thames, I saw a hole in 

 a precipitous bank, which I felt assured was a nesting-place of the kingfisher, and on 

 passing a spare top of my fly-rod to the extremity of the hole, a distance of nearly 

 three feet, I brought out some freshly-cast bones of fish, convincing me that I was 

 right in my surmise. The day following, the 9th of May, I again visited the .spot with 

 a spade, and, after removing nearly two feet square of the turf, dug down to the nest 

 without disturbing the entrance-hole or the passage which led to it. Here I found 



