72 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Manx Shearwater breeding on the Coast of Carnarvonshire.— It is a 

 well-known fact that the Manx Shearwater, Puffinus anglorum, breeds on 

 some of the small islands off the Welsh coast, but it is perhaps not so well 

 known that it breeds in certainly one locality on the mainland. When visiting 

 the Carnarvonshire coast between Pwllheli and Aberdaron, in June, 1887, 

 Mr. C. Oldham and I saw a string of these birds flying across the bay 

 towards two small islands ; and the following year we made several 

 enquiries about the birds from the lighthouse-keepers on the islands, and 

 from the natives. They all spoke of " Mackerel-cocks" being occasionally 

 seen in the bay, but affirmed that they did not breed. The keepers, however, 

 said that they heard them at night making a noise " like a child sobbing in 

 trouble." Visiting the same locality in May, 1893, we found a great number 

 of dead Shearwaters along the cliffs and on the beach. All the birds had 

 apparently died violent deaths, for their necks were broken, and many of 

 them had their heads twisted off. In one spot on the steep grassy cliffs of 

 the mainland we found over a score of bodies lying near some rabbit-holes, 

 some quite recently dead, others very much older. All the older bodies 

 had the skin torn from the breast and belly, and the skeletons were picked 

 clean, probably by the Carrion Crows, several pairs of which birds nest 

 along these cliffs. One of the rabbit-burrows had been dug out with a 

 spade, and contained a dead Shearwater and a broken egg. At the mouth 

 of two holes at the base of a turf-wall there were recent droppings, in one 

 case hardly dry, and in digging in we found, at a depth of eight or nine 

 feet, a few feathers and a little grass and other nesting material. Next day 

 we found a dead Shearwater on one of the islands, and the lighthouse-keepers 

 told us that some weeks before some men had been catching rabbits on the 

 islands, and had bolted several Shearwaters and killed them. Probably 

 this also explained the massacre on the cliffs, although the natives either 

 knew, or professed to know, nothing about it. The keepers again spoke of 

 the bird calling at night, and described the call as sounding like a deep, 

 drawn-out repetition of the words " It's your fault ; " the emphasis on the 

 word "your." We found odd corpses along the cliffs for some distance, 

 though they were only numerous in one spot, where the cliffs were very 

 steep and covered with heather, bracken, and furze. — T. A. Coward 

 (Bowdon). 



Variety of the Hawfinch. — A beautiful variety of the Hawfinch, 

 Coccnthraustes vulgaris, was shot by a keeper on Oct. 5th, 1894, at Berry 

 Hill, near here, and kindly sent me by Mr. W. Hollins. The head, neck, 

 breast and tail are pure white, except on rump, where there are a few grey 

 feathers ; the shoulders are white, the rest of wings of the normal colour — 

 a blue-black, the bar across them being very white and large, a pleasing 

 contrast which adds to the beauty of this bird. The legs are flesh-colour. 

 This is one of the most striking varieties of the Hawfinch I have ever seen, 



