3912 Reptiles. 



adult glaucous gulls (Larus glaucus), are amongst the rarest of the birds which we 

 have shot in Shetland this winter. — Robert Dunn; Helister, near Weesdale, Shetland 

 Islands, N. B., April 11, 1853. 



Occurrence of the Masked Gull (Larus capistratus) in Sussex. — On the 25th of Fe- 

 bruary last, I received a living specimen of a gull, which I suspected to be the masked 

 gull (Larus capistratus) of Yarrell's ' History of British Birds' (iii. 430), in a transi- 

 tion state between the summer and winter plumage, showing a few dark feathers be- 

 hind the eye and on the front of the head, but the occiput and back of the neck being 

 pure white. Having pinioned it, I put it on a pond with other gulls, &C, and it soon 

 began to assume more dark feathers on the head and face, and has now, April 25th, 

 fully assumed the mask, the back of the neck and the occiput being still pure white, 

 so much so, that when the bird is running or swimming away from the spectator, no 

 dark colour is visible. This is a mature bird, the tail being pure white. It was caught 

 off Brighton, the day before it was sent to me : I am not aware of any record of its 

 having before been obtained in the South of England." — Wm. Borrer,jun. ; Cowfold, 

 April 25, 1853. 



Note on the Reproduction of Frogs. — Mr. Edward Lowe's paper on the reproduc- 

 tion of frogs without the presence of water, which appeared in the 'Annals' for April, 

 and is quoted in the 'Zoologist' of this month (Zool. 3871), is one most deserving 

 the attention of all naturalists. In support of Mr. Lowe's fifth observation, I cannot 

 help sending you these few remarks. Year after year I have observed the same cir- 

 cumstance, and to account for it has always been to me the greatest puzzle. It was 

 in a wine-cellar that the frogs were seen ; the exact position of which I must first at- 

 tempt to describe. This wine-cellar had no other entrance than a close-fitting door, 

 under which a moderate-sized frog could not possibly pass ; nor do I think that even 

 young ones, such as those seen, could have done so, but of this I cannot speak for cer- 

 tain. This door opened into a dairy, having a window communicating by a small 

 area with the garden. Minute frogs were found continually, two or three years fol- 

 lowing, among the damp sawdust in the cellar. They were very small, not larger than 

 if they had just assumed the perfect state. And now, as to how they got there. Is 

 it possible that they were brought into the cellar with the sawdust, and, from want of 

 food, did not increase in size during that lengthened period ? I should say not. We 

 have now two propositions left: — either they must by some means have found their way 

 into the cellar, or they must have been bred in it. The nearest water to the cellar was 

 a small pond in a field separated from the garden by a deep walled ha-ha ; but I have 

 never seen any tadpoles in that pond, nor do I think it likely that there would be any 

 there, as the water is very pure, coming from a spring not far off, and running in and 

 out of the pond in a continued stream. But granting, for the sake of argument, that 

 the frogs might have been bred there, to have reached the cellar they must have crossed 

 the field, mounted the perpendicular wall of the ha-ha, traversed the garden, passed 

 through the area and window into the dairy, and thence under the door into the wine- 

 cellar, and this, too, in a party of some dozens! That frogs and toads will do won- 

 derful things in the shape of locomotion, is a fact well known, and of this, perhaps, 

 the most extraordinary instance on record is that given in the number for November, 



