36 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



1904. This bird abounds on the sand-banks in the Dee and Mersey 

 estuaries, but, so far as I know, it has not hitherto been noticed inland 

 in Cheshire. — Chas. Oldham (Knutsford). 



Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus) assuming the Hood in 

 Winter. — On Dec. 31st last I saw, on the Dee below this city, a Black- 

 headed Gull with the brown hood almost entire. In the north this is, 

 in my experience, an exceptionally early date for the assumption of 

 the dark mask of the breeding plumage. The earliest date I have 

 previously noted was Jan. 17th, 1903, and occasionally in February in 

 former years. Instances in the south are apparently of more frequent 

 occurrence ; Messrs. D'Urban and Mathew, in their excellent work, the 

 ' Birds of Devon,' quote several early dates for that county. Through- 

 out the autumn and winter months this species is very abundant in 

 this neighbourhood, but I consider the Common Gull (Larus canus) to 

 be even more numerous. These last, with few exceptions, are always 

 in adult plumage. — S. G. Cummings (Chester). 



Buffon's Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus) in Somerset. — The speci- 

 men of Buffon's Skua shot at Axbridge in October, 1903, to which 

 Mr. Stanley Lewis refers in ' The Zoologist ' (1904, p. 461), makes, 

 as far as I know, the fourth example recorded as taken in Somerset. 

 The first, an adult specimen, was shot at Nynehead, near Welling- 

 ton, at the end of October, 1862 (cf. Zool. 1863, p. 8448). The 

 second, in immature plumage, was shot near Stolford, Sept. 18th, 

 1873 (cf. Zool. 1874, p. 3869). Both these examples were examined 

 by the late Cecil Smith. In October, 1891, numbers of these birds 

 were driven by severe gales into the English and Bristol Channels, 

 and one was shot at Clevedon (cf. D'Urban and Mathew, « The Birds 

 of Devon,' ed. ii. p. 397). I have also received other confirmation of 

 the capture of this specimen. — F. L. Blathwayt (Lincoln). 



Red-throated Diver (Colymbus septentrionalis) in Cheshire. — On 

 Kov. 12th, 1904, I watched a Diver for some time on Tatton Mere, 

 near Knutsford. It looked but little larger than the Great Crested 

 Grebes, of which there were a number on the water, but even at a 

 distance it might be readily recognized by the shorter and thicker neck 

 and stouter, slightly recurved bill ; its long, cigar-shaped body, too, 

 lacked the curve above the water-line which a Grebe's has. In the 

 dim afternoon light it was impossible with the binoculars to make out 

 the white spots on the back which distinguish the Bed-throated from 

 the Black-throated Diver in winter plumage, but when I went again to 

 the mere with Messrs. Coward and Cummings on the 19th, we could, 



