24 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



aware) recorded in it. I heard some years ago that a small white gull 

 came occasionally with the Greenland ice to the north coasts of Iceland, at 

 the same time as the Polar Bears do. My collector procured one for me 

 after a good deal of trouble, and it is, as I suspected, an Ivory Gull, 

 Pagophila eburnea, a fine adult bird. On July 25th last, about sixty miles 

 S.E. from Eskifjordr, a black petrel flew close to me (within ten yards, 

 certainly) as I was standing on the deck of the Danish mail steamer 

 * Thyra,' and continued to circle round the ship for some time. I had no 

 hesitation in putting it down as the Dusky Shearwater, Puffinus griseus. 

 I described it in my notes at the time as something short of a foot in 

 length ; expanse of wing nearly two feet; colour sooty black; bill slenderer 

 than a Fulmar's and much hooked. I saw another in the Axarfjordr (N.E. 

 coast of Iceland) two days later ; and an observant fellow-passenger, to whom 

 I had pointed out these two on the wing, assured me afterwards that he had 

 seen another on the west coast. There is nothing improbable in the 

 occurrence of the Dusky Shearwater in Iceland, and I expect that further 

 investigation will show that it breeds there in small numbers. I may add 

 that I have been (for some eight years) collecting materials for an annotated 

 list of Iceland birds, with the recent additions, and that any information on 

 the subject from brother ornithologists will be most welcome. But I shall 

 have to make yet another personal visit at least to the island before I shall 

 be in a position to finish it. — Henry H. Slater (Thornhaugh Rectory, 

 near Wansford). 



Hybrid Swans. — Some three years ago, Mr. Assheton Smith, of Vaynol 

 Park, Bangor, received in exchange from the Zoological Society's Gardens, 

 Regent's Park, a female American Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus buccinator. 

 This bird was placed upon a pool with other water-fowl, amongst which was 

 a male Mute Swan, C. olor, with which in course of time it paired. Since 

 then three broods of hybrid cygnets have been reared, and during a visit to 

 Vaynol in October I had daily opportunities, for a fortnight, of inspecting 

 them. The cygnets of 1894 were, of course, still in the grey immature 

 plumage, but the young birds of the previous brood were then almost as 

 white as their parents. In the carriage of the head and neck they resemble 

 the female parent, C. buccinator, and the bill (which in the latter is wholly 

 black) is black from the base to within an inch or so of the extremity, 

 where it then becomes flesh-colour. There is, moreover, no prominent 

 tubercle at the base of the bill, which is so conspicuous in the Mute Swan. 

 The period of incubation was not precisely noted, but it was believed to be 

 rather less than six weeks, the number of the brood being five iu 1893, and 

 six in 1894. As the American Trumpeter Swan has long been introduced 

 into this country, and is even said to have been met with in a wild state on 

 the Suffolk coast (' Handbook of British Birds,' p. 155), it is not surprising 

 that, under favourable conditions, it should sometimes breed here; but I 



