NOTES AND QUERIES. 151 



coloured Courser before he ever set eyes on it. When he did obtain a hasty 

 glance at it, he only saw it by the light of a single candle, and it was partly 

 hidden by other birds preserved in the same case, so that he had no chance 

 of identifying it. Of course, when the bird was taken out of the case it 

 was easily identified. I may add, in reference to the Frigate Petrel, the 

 remark that, although we have no proof that the bird ever saw the shores 

 of Britain, yet there can be no doubt that it must have wandered to our 

 coast, for the reason that, when washed ashore on Walney, it was fresh 

 enough to make a very fair skin. The Wilson's Petrel, obtained at the 

 same time, was much more decomposed when found. — H. A. Macpherson 

 (Carlisle). 



The Antarctic Sheathbill on the Coast of Ireland. — In the 

 'Zoologist' for January last (p. 28) Mr. Barrington reported that a bird of 

 this species, Chionis alba y was shot by the keeper at Carlingford Light- 

 house, Co. Down, on December 2nd, 1892, and was forwarded for his 

 inspection. At a meeting of the Zoological Society, on February 28th 

 last, the bird was exhibited on Mr. Barrington 's behalf by the Secretary ^ 

 and naturally attracted considerable attention from ornithologists present. 

 As Chionis alba is known to occur only in the Falkland Islands and South 

 Georgia, the appearance of a living example on the coast of Ireland is only 

 to be explained on the assumption of man's intervention. In all proba- 

 bility the bird was being brought home alive on some homeward-bound 

 vessel from the Falklands, and, having fluttered overboard, succeeded tempo- 

 rarily in making its escape. — Ed. 



Nesting of the Black Scoter in Sussex. — In the « Zoologist ' for 

 1892 (pp. 151. 228) we published two letters from Mr. Charles Fowler and 

 Mr. Anderson (the Curator of the Chichester Museum), on the subject of 

 the alleged breeding of (Edemia nigra'm Earnley Marshes, near Chichester. 

 The statement was so extraordinary in view of what is known of the usual 

 nesting-haunts of this species, that we hesitated to accept it without very 

 positive evidence. Mr. Fowler having seen a brood of seven which could 

 just fly, and shot the male bird in August, 1891, forwarded the latter to Mr. 

 Anderson, who vouched for its being correctly named. This bird, which 

 was preserved, was lately forwarded to London for the inspection of 

 ornithologists, and was exhibited by Mr. Howard Saunders at a meeting of 

 the British Ornithologists' Club on the 26th of January last. Evidently 

 the bird in question was a Scoter; but we must confess that we would 

 rather have seen one of the young brood referred to. The question of 

 breeding would then have been more satisfactorily settled. It is so common 

 an occurrence for non-breeding species to be seen swimming about on the 

 same pool with others which are nesting in the neighbourhood, that this 

 missing link in the evidence is the more desirable. — Ed. 



