8726 Birds— Reptiles. 



I have just seen the skin removed, and took that opportunity of partially dissecting 

 the body. Its total weight in the flesh was eleven pounds. There was no fat, but the 

 sternum was pretty well clothed with powerful muscle. Its measurements were as 

 follows : — Extreme length from tip of bill to tip of tail, four feet five inches ; from 

 the end of the third feather of one wing (this being the longest feather) to the same 

 point on the opposite wing, extended, six feet five inches. The bill brilliant scarlet 

 to within an inch of tip, at which point a band of a pink or roseate hue extends across 

 from side to side, about half an inch wide in the broadest part. Between this band 

 and the nail is a second narrow line of brilliant scarlet, the same as on the greater part 

 of bill. The nail itself is of the same rosy hue as the broad band above it. Iris pearly, 

 but tinged with a roseate blush. Colour of head, breast and belly dark sooty slate or 

 ash-colour, rather lighter on the belly. The neck and back several shades darker. 

 Primaries, secondaries and some of the tertiaries on either side pure white. Scapu- 

 laries and some of the wing-coverts glossy black, several of the latter on each side 

 being curled outwards, upwards and backwards. Legs dark sooty gray. Webs sooty 

 black. Toes sooty gray. The gizzard contained a considerable quantity of vegetable 

 matter, — grasses and seeds of grasses, mixed up with innumerable fragments of very 

 small flinty gravel. The organ itself was large and immensely muscular and powerful, 

 the iuner grinding surfaces feeling like rough bony plates. The testes were about an 

 inch or rather more in length, and of a. creamy white colour. Both the wings were 

 perfect and unpinioned, the number of feathers on either side corresponding. The 

 plumage generally was very fine and unsullied, although the bird had slightly com- 

 menced moulting. lam unaware of the black swan having been kept or bred in a 

 state of captivity in this Riding, and my specimen has every appearance of being an 

 undoubtedly wild bird, which the unpinioned wings (although the bird is mature) and 

 the state of its plumage would teud to corroborate. — W. W. Boulton; Beverley \ 

 August 4, 1863. 



Richardson's Skua in Kent. — I had a beautiful specimen of this bird brought me 

 this morning. — E. Young; Sittingbourne, July 1, 1863. 



Scarcity of Summer Migratory Birds in the East Riding of Yorkshire. — I have 

 only observed a single specimen of the common swift, usually very abundant here. It 

 was flying to and fro in an agitated and unusual manner, as though frightened or lost, 

 at a great height over some corn-fields, and in the company of common swallows. 

 Swallows and house martins have also been unusually scarce. Whitethroats and the 

 common warblers, generally very abundant in this locality, have been quite occasional 

 during the present summer. The whinchat and pipits occur also in very small num- 

 bers. Indeed all our summer visitants have appeared more sparingly this year than I 

 ever recollect. — W. W. Boulton; Beverley, August 4, 1863. 



Toads in Stone. — Your animadversions (Zool. 8642) on the statements of Sir A. P. 

 Gordon Gumming concerning toads found in rock do not appear to me to have been 

 written with your usual candour and philosophic spirit. You object to the term 

 *' scampering away " as inapplicable to the action of toads. I am in the habit of keep- 

 ing several toads in my plant-houses, and I certainly should not hesitate to use the 

 term "scamper" to describe the uncouih hurry with which they jump and shuffle off 

 when my footstep comes suddenly behind them. But granting that a better term 



