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him that most of the specimens he saw in the various German Museums labelled as P. cinereus 

 were the present species in winter plumage. Naumann merely speaks of it as being an 

 extremely rare straggler to North Germany ; and Kjserbolling (Danm. Fugle, p. 311) says that 

 it is occasionally seen from November to March, and gives several instances of its occurrence in 

 Denmark. Mr. C. Dubois writes (J. f. 0. 1856, p. 506) that it sometimes occurs in Belgium, and 

 that he received two specimens obtained at Ostend. Baron von Droste Hulshoff states that he 

 has several times obtained it from the coast of East Friesland, and believes that it has occurred 

 on the Island of Borkum ; and Messrs. Degland and Gerbe write (Orn. Eur. ii. p. 238) that it 

 occurs irregularly on the French coasts during migration in October, November, December, and 

 May. In October 1834 a large number were captured at Dunkerque, and examples were 

 obtained along the whole coast to Bayonne, after a severe storm of several days' duration. 

 Messrs. Jaubert and Barthelemy-Lapommeraye also record its having been obtained near 

 Marseilles ten years subsequently. Professor Barboza du Bocage includes it in his list of 

 birds occurring in Portugal with a query ; but Canon Tristram has sent me a specimen obtained 

 at Lisbon. I find only one instance of its occurrence in Spain, that recorded by Colonel Irby, 

 who says (Ibis, 1873, p. 97) that one was killed at the Laguna de Janda, between Cadiz and 

 Tarifa, on the 29th September, 1871. Passing eastward, I find it recorded by Bailly (Orn. de la 

 Savoie, iv. p. 280) as occasionally seen in Savoy during the winter or in the fall of the year, 

 usually after a severe storm or great cold. He possesses one obtained on Lake Bourget, on the 

 25th November, 1850, and says that it has been met with on the Lake of Geneva. It has like- 

 wise occurred in Italy. Savi speaks of it as being found in winter on the lakes of Northern Italy ; 

 and Salvadori states (Uccelli d'ltalia, p. 210) that two specimens were obtained near Naples in 

 December 1869 and January 1870. It has also been recorded from Southern Germany ; and 

 Dr. A. Fritsch records (J. f. O. 1871, p. 385) three occurrences in Bohemia — one near Eger in 

 1843, one near Rumburg, and one near Pardubic; and Luigi Althammer (Naum. 1858, p. 167) 

 says that one was obtained at Lago di Castellano, in the Tyrol, in January. Von Nordmann says 

 that it is stated to have occurred on the Black Sea and Caspian, but he himself never saw it in 

 Southern Russia. The only record I find of its occurrence in North Africa is one by Mr. C. F. 

 Tyrwhitt-Drake, who says (Ibis, 1867, p. 429) that he obtained one in January at Tangier. 



To the eastward it occurs right across Siberia, and has been met with as far south a& 

 Calcutta. Von Middendorff writes (Sib. Reise, p. 216) that it arrives with the Red-necked 

 Phalarope on the Taimyr river, and was equally common there and on the Boganida, but was 

 wanting in South-east Siberia. In 75° N. lat. he saw the last on the 15th August. In winter 

 it migrates far south. Mr. A. O. Hume met with it in Sindh, and writes (Stray Feathers, i. 

 p. 245), " I first saw this species when out fishing about two miles outside the Kurrachee 

 Harbour — a small party of about twenty, if I remember rightly, swimming about merrily in 

 the open sea. I saw similar parties in various localities the whole way up the Gulf of Oman ; 

 and they are equally common, I was told, in the Persian Gulf. So far as my experience goes, 

 they are very wary, rising en masse, and skimming along the surface of the water, for a couple 

 of hundred yards or so, as soon as the boat approaches within a hundred yards of them. With 

 very great difficulty, though I often went after them, I secured a single specimen in the open 

 sea, halfway between Gwader and Muscat ; and that I dropped out of a flock at fully a hundred 



3 m 



