316 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



are old birds, and the mottled-breasted birds are young ones ; that the 

 "white on the face, and especially on the lower mandible or feathers of 

 the chin, are signs of immaturity and not of old age ; and that colora- 

 tion of the soft parts is also no criterion. North American Snow- 

 Buntings of large size might be separated similarly from the European ; 

 the dark-backed. Sand- Martin of east of the White Sea might be sepa- 

 rated from our Sandy-backed Martin of Britain, and perhaps have 

 some right to be described, as the usual order of geographical 

 variation between eastern and western specimens reversed — that 

 is, we might expect to find lighter-coloured and not darker-coloured 

 Sand-Martins to the east than in the west, but this is not so. 

 I suspect old Aristotle gauged these Geese fairly well, as described 

 in ' Zoologist ' (ante, p. 248), and present-day naturalists will not 

 be very far out if they leave them alone now. I write, with the 

 breast of a White-fronted Goose before me, which is almost black, 

 the broad bands merging into one another all over ; and the other 

 extreme, faint grey breast mottled all over with black ticks. This 

 latter bird has the white chin. An intermediate one has dark black 

 bands on breast showing signs of merging, and has no white on the 

 chin nor below the gape, only on the front of forehead. With regard 

 to Anser rubrirostris, I have no remark to make, except that free transla- 

 tion of German sentences, graceful or ungraceful, is a " ticklish tail to 

 tackle" at any time. — J. A. Harvie-Beown (Dunipace, Larbert, Stir- 

 lingshire, N.B.). 



Tufted Duck in Merionethshire. — When passing Bala Lake in the 

 train early in the morning of May 23rd, I saw, close inshore, near the 

 upper end of the lake, three Tufted Ducks (Fuligula cristata), which 

 seemed to be a male and two females. I passed the lake on the 12th, 

 and again just a month later, without seeing them ; but Mr. A. H. 

 Macpherson saw probably the same three Tufted Ducks on May 29th 

 and June 1st, each time about the same place. I do not remember if 

 this Duck has yet been recorded as breeding in Wales ; neither do I 

 know if the Ducks I saw were breeding. — 0. V. Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon). 



Stock-Dove (Coluniba oenas) in the Isle of Man. — Frequently 

 during the last few years I have seen a few Pigeons which I thought 

 were Rock-Doves or feral birds, about a certain part of the coast on 

 the west of the island, but, owing to their wildness, I could never get 

 near enough to them to see definitely to which species they belonged. 

 On May 18th, 1902, I disturbed a pair from some broken piled-up 

 rock full of crevices and holes near the foot of a steep sea-brow. 

 Feeling sure these could not be Rock-Doves, I hid and watched for 



