NOTES AND QUERIES. 317 



Cuckoos' Eggs. — Among the Cuckoos' eggs which I have seen this 

 year are three which are undoubtedly tlie eggs of the same hen Cuckoo, 

 but not with those of the same species of foster-parent. All three 

 were taken in an adjoining parish — the first on June 8th, with two 

 eggs of the Hedge- Sparrow ; the second on June 21st, also with two 

 eggs of the Hedge- Sparrow ; and the third on June 24th, with three 

 eggs of the Yellow Bunting ; all three being similar in size, shape, 

 and colour, and having a very clearly defined zone at the larger end. 

 A Cuckoo's egg (the reddest I have ever taken), which I found on 

 July 3rd with three eggs of the Reed- Warbler, showed decided traces 

 of incubation when being blown ; but the three eggs with it were all 

 quite fresh. The contrary state of things would have been easy to 

 understand, but this I am unable to explain. — Julian G. Tuck (Tostock 

 Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk). 



Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus) in Norfolk. — On 

 Jan. 24th, 1900, an adult female of this exceedingly rare and per- 

 fectly distinct species of Wild Goose was procured in Norfolk, and is 

 now in my collection. During my experience I have seen not merely 

 hundreds, but probably thousands of the ordinary White-fronted 

 Goose {Anser albifrons) in the flesh, and my eyes are thoroughly 

 accustomed to the general outline and appearance of the bird. When 

 this A. erythropus came into my possession in the flesh, I instantly 

 detected its strikingly distinctive characters, and could not help won- 

 dering how any person who had ever seen the two birds in a freshly 

 killed condition could doubt for a moment their specific distinctness. 

 This is, I believe, the second instance only on record for Great 

 Britain. — P. Coburn (7, Holloway Head, Birmingham). 



Great Black-backed Gull inland in Wales. — Can any reader of 

 ' The Zoologist ' say whether the Great Black-backed Gull still breeds 

 on the islet in Llyn Llydaw, under Snowdon, or not ? The Rev. W. 

 Bingley, who ascended Snowdon in either 1798 or 1801, stated that a 

 small island in Llyn Llydaw was " in spring the haunt of the Black- 

 backed Gulls {Lanes marinus of Linnseus), which here lay their eggs 

 and bring up their young " (North Wales, 1804). And Dr. Mavor's 

 companions, when on Snowdon in 1805, near the edge of the precipice 

 over the lakes, were enveloped in cloud, and heard the hoarse note of 

 the Cob {vide Zool. 1886, p. 488, for this name), " a bird frequenting 

 the alpine heights " (' The British Tourists' or Travellers' Companion,' 

 1809, vol. V. p. 276). Until the last few years these birds were 

 reported to breed on an islet in an inland lake in Merionethshire ; 

 and this year (1901) I saw, on two occasions in May, a pair of fine old 



