318 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



island, both on the bare rock and the grassy portion, a few pairs of the 

 Lesser Black-backed nest ; while on a small island near Oban, N.B., 

 the reverse is the case. This colony is that of the Lesser Black- 

 backed, with an occasional pair of Herring-Gulls. In both these 

 colonies I have identified and examined many nests, and for nearly 

 every shade of colouring of the eggs of the one bird have found a 

 similar egg of the other, except that I have not as yet identified an egg 

 of the Herring-Gull, with the peculiar black-ink-like scratchings, which 

 are sometimes found on the egg of the Lesser Black-backed. With 

 most of the Gulls it is common to find the three eggs differing very 

 much in colour, markings, and size, but this does not prove that they 

 are not the eggs of the same bird ; nevertheless birds may, and probably 

 do, make mistakes sometimes, especially the gregarious species, which 

 possibly also accounts for the occasional clutches of more than three 

 eggs in the nests of Gulls. Only this season I found in Scotland the 

 nest of a Mallard (Anas boscas) containing ten similar and typical 

 greenish-white eggs of the Wild Duck, one of them which I have 

 measured being 2-2 in. x 1*7 in., while an eleventh egg in the nest was 

 much larger, and of a buffish tint, measuring 2-5 in. x 1*8 in. This 

 latter I take to be the egg (which it resembles in size and tint) of the 

 Red-breasted Merganser (Mergns serrator), deposited in the Mallard's 

 nest. — H. Holkoyd Mills (Treslothan Vicarage, Camborne, Cornwall). 



Birds mentioned by Aristotle. — When Aristotle says (ante, p. 247) 

 that the laros hatches out its young in summer (whereas the aithyia does 

 so in early spring) he was perhaps alluding to a Tern (" among rocks " 

 need not necessarily mean "in rocks"). Terns in this country breed 

 much later in the year than Gulls. Laros in Greek seems to include 

 both Gulls and Terns (vide Professor D'Arcy Thompson's ' Glossary of 

 Greek Birds,' p. Ill) ; aithyia is clearly some kind of Gull. — 0. V. 

 Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon). 



Birds and Sound of Firearms. — Seeing Mr. Distant's interesting 

 note about birds under fire (ante, p. 276), I thought the following might 

 interest some readers of this Journal : — About two years ago I was 

 trying the pattern of a new 12-bore gun, and alongside me, in a hedge 

 not four feet away, was a party of Blue Tits (Partes cceruleus) hunting for 

 insects. I fired off a good many cartridges, but it did not seem to disturb 

 them in the least. Perhaps these small birds, like the Weaver and Tits, 

 have not such highly developed brains as to make them take fright at 

 sudden noise ; their power of hearing is probably not so well developed 

 as that of sight, for one often finds a sudden movement frightens a 

 bird much more than a noise. — W. H. Wobkman (Windsor, Belfast). 



