Birds. — Insects. 3235 



found it asleep upon the water in the lower part of our river — the Ouse. They struck 

 it with an oar, and afterwards succeeded in taking it alive. A friend of mine bought 

 it, and kept it alive until the 30th, when it died from the effects of the blow with the 

 oar. He fed it upon fresh beef and small sprats, which it readily devoured. It slept 

 and rested during the day, but in the evening it became more active and lively. On 

 dissection it proved to be a male. It measured 17 inches in length : wing from an- 

 terior joint 12 inches, from tip to tip 3 feet 6 inches: whole length of the bill 2 inches, 

 from tip to the gape 2\ inches, tubular portion |- of an inch: tarsus 2 inches: middle 

 toe, including the claw, 2\ inches : web extending to the extremity of the anterior 

 toes : the posterior toe rudimentary. Colour of the bill dark brown, under mandible 

 lighter at the base : irides dark brown : top of the head, neck and back dark clove- 

 brown, margins of the feathers on the back darker : throat light ash-gray, darkening 

 on the sides and softening into the brown of the head : scapulars brown, the margins 

 lighter ; tertiaries brown, the stems darker ; wing-coverts blackish brown ; primaries 

 blackish brown, the stems nearly black, inner web lighter than the outer: tail-feathers 

 dark brown: breast and belly dark ash-gray: legs brown, toes and membranes lighter. 

 In all probability this was a young bird of the last year's hatch, in the plumage resem- 

 bling its maternal parent, Upon comparing this with the descriptions given by Yar- 

 rell of the two birds figured and described by him, it will appear that the difference of 

 plumage manifested by this example from that of Yarrell's darker bird, is owing to the 

 progress it has made towards the assumption of its adult plumage. — Edwd. L. King ; 

 Lynn, August 18, 1851. 



Note on the Gull-billed Tern. — I have lately seen a fine adult male specimen of 

 the gull-billed tern, in full summer plumage, which was killed at Yarmouth in the 

 early part of July. The frequent occurrence of this species during the last two or 

 three years in the above locality, would seem to indicate that it is a commoner species 

 than has been supposed ; probably it is often mistaken for its near congener, the 

 Sandwich tern. — J. H. Gumey ; Easton, Norfolk, August 4, 1851. 



Occurrence of the Caspian Tern at Yarmouth. — A fine adult male specimen of the 

 Caspian tern, in full summer plumage, was shot at Yarmouth about a week since. — 

 Id.; August 21, 1851. 



The Museum Catalogue of British Lepidoptera. — I do not think I can possibly al- 

 low Mr. Stephens' remarks upon my article on the Museum Catalogue (Zool. 3161) 

 to pass quite unnoticed, although I have no wish to say any more on the subject. My 

 sole object was to show that the sections into which Hiibner has divided the Lepido- 

 ptera in the ' Verzeichniss,' could not be adopted as genera. To this work, and to 

 this only, I referred ; and I still adhere to the opinion that these sections, founded 

 only upon colour and markings, are not genera at all. In several instances a variety 

 is placed in a different coitus from the typical insect. The well-known Papilio Turnus 

 of North America is placed in coitus Jasoniades, along with Machaon, Xuthus, &c. ; 

 while the suffused variety of the female (Glaucus of Linnaeus) is associated with Troi- 

 lus, Asterias, &c, in coitus Euphocades. That in some few instances the species pla- 

 ced in a coitus by Hiibner form a natural genus, I fully admit ; but this has arisen 

 from these species closely resembling each other in colour and markings, and had a 

 Bombyx been found resembling a Noctua in these respects, it would doubtless have 



