104 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



plumage : — " Upper parts aud tail darker than the Thrush ; no light edges 

 to wing-coverts ; breast and belly covered with dark blotches, giving the 

 bird, at a little distance, quite a black appearance ; bill seems to be longer 

 and thicker than in the Thrush ; upper mandible brown ; lower mandible 

 yellow, except just the tip; eyelids yellow, as in Blackbird ; legs and feet 

 pale brown ; claws, some dark and some colourless." In the variety class 

 there was an extraordinary Bullfinch, showing a combination of albinism 

 and melanism, the upper parts being chiefly black and white, and the lower 

 parts black and dull red. As usual, some of the birds were curiously mis- 

 named. One class for " British Birds larger than Woodlark " contained 

 an Alpine Chough, described on the Catalogue as a Cornish Chough ; while 

 in the class for " British Birds not larger than Woodlark (Woodlark iu- 

 cluded)," there was a crested green Canary with a yellow tail ! The various 

 Canary mules occupied over 150 cages, aud included crosses with the Gold- 

 finch, Linnet, Siskin, Greenfinch, Redpoll, and also with the Mealy Redpoll 

 and Chaffinch ; this last hybrid is said to have been bred in a garden 

 aviary. — A. Holts Macpherson (51, Gloucester Place, Hyde Park, W.). 



Notes from Aberystwith. — The immigration of Grey Phalaropes 

 which followed the gales of mid-October was well marked upon this part of 

 the coast. Between the 17th and 24th of that month eighteen specimens 

 were received by our local birdstuffer. On the 19th I watched four of 

 these birds swimming under the lee of some rocks in front of the Terrace. 

 On March 27th, last year, two Ravens' nests, in an inland locality some 

 thirty miles distant, proved to contain, the one young just hatching, the 

 other three fresh eggs. A third nest, the following day, also contained 

 three fresh eggs. On April 21st, in spite of snow on several preceding 

 days, young Stonechats were hatched, and showed their first feathers. On 

 the 30th, the mud-flats of the Dovey estuary were alive with Ring Plovers 

 and Dunlins, and I made out a single pair of Sanderlings. On May 8th, 

 a Buzzard's nest, in the same neighbourhood as the Ravens' before men- 

 tioned, contained two eggs, incubated about a fortnight. I have visited 

 several of the wildest districts of Central Wales, aud have nowhere found 

 the Buzzard at all plentiful ; keepers and shepherds everywhere know that 

 it is a bird which will fetch a fair price. A Kestrel's nest contaiued eggs 

 of precisely the same type as some taken from the same hole ten years 

 previously. Almost all the Warblers, with the exception of the Nightin- 

 gale, visited this western locality. The Blackcap I met with in fair 

 numbers; the Garden Warbler was decidedly less plentiful. I listened, 

 however, in vain for the Lesser Whitethroat. The Redstart and Wood 

 Warbler were abundant in all suitable localities. On June 1st, when 

 visiting a part of our cliffs which is little explored, a Peregrine Falcon flew 

 round oveihead with much outcry ; she doubtless had young ones. The 

 Choughs arc all but gone ; I doubt if we have more than a single pair 



