230 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



I visited the pool on the morning of the 9th it had gone. — Charles 

 Oldham (Knutsford). 



The Rock-Dove (Columba livia) in Somerset. — With reference to 

 my previous note as to the breeding of this species at Cheddar Cliffs, 

 I should like to mention that Mr. Alfred West, of Cliff Street, Cheddar, 

 has shot many of these birds on the bean-stubble about August ; he 

 also informs me that he saw the two eggs of this species on a ledge 

 about four feet in a cleft of the rocks — no nest — 1902. The following 

 remark to me from the same person, and quite unasked for, should go 

 some way towards proving the identity of these birds. I had told him 

 of my discovery of Rock-Doves in the cliffs, and that I had seen them 

 flying swiftly from out the ivy. He remarked, " Oh, yes ; where did you 

 stand?" I replied, "In the road " (beneath the cliffs). He con- 

 tinued : " The best way is to walk along the cliffs' head, and then you 

 can see their checkered wings and white rumps." The local name is 

 Rock-Pigeon. — Stanley Lewis (Wells, Somerset). 



Dotterel (Eudromias morinellus) in Cheshire. — On May 8th, at 

 Sealand, near Chester, I had the good fortune to see a party of fifteen 

 Dotterel in their beautiful summer dress. When I first saw them 

 they were wheeling about in a compact body over a fallow-field 

 adjoining the high road ; on alighting near some water lying in the 

 field they at once proceeded to wash — with the exception of one bird 

 who acted sentinel — giving me a good view of their actions whilst so 

 employed. This is now a rare bird in Cheshire, though it is stated 

 that it occurs almost yearly in spring on the moors of North-east 

 Cheshire. — S. G. Cummings (King's Buildings, Chester). 



Variation in the Guillemot. — It is quite possible, as Mr. Warren 

 suggests (ante, p. 194), that the Rev. Julian G. Tuck and I are mistaken 

 in thinking the Guillemot described in ' The Zoologist ' (ante, p. 158) 

 might be a hybrid, but as to its being a very unusual " freak " there 

 can be no doubt. I am quite aware that the winter and summer 

 plumage of the Common Guillemot differ in a marked degree, being 

 very dark in winter as compared with the sooty brown summer dress, 

 and we did not form our provisional diagnosis from the colour alone, as 

 will be seen from the rough description I gave. Many dozens of 

 specimens in both summer and winter plumage have been handled by 

 me, and I have watched the birds at all seasons, this last winter 

 especially, and I have noticed that, though in the usual winter plumage, 

 the back and upper parts are very dark ; one occasionally comes across 

 a specimen having these parts quite the same as in summer. (Are we 



