152 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



he examined one of my birds. Surely nothing more need be said on 

 this much-debated question. Mr. Alpheraky, on page 57, expresses 

 regret that he had not time to communicate with Mr. Gurney and 

 myself. I share that regret, for it would have given me the greatest 

 pleasure to have co-operated with him, and I think a little friendly 

 interchange of views might have removed what appear to me to be 

 blemishes in an otherwise excellent book. — F. Cobuen (7, Holloway 

 Head, Birmingham). 



[Anyone perusing pp. 3 and 4 of Alpheraky's book must certainly be 

 in no doubt as to that writer's emphatic opinion on the little reliance 

 to be placed on the length and colouring of the bill as a specific 

 character. Whether he has been consistent in these views throughout 

 his book is a matter which Mr. Coburn evidently, questions. — The 

 Reviewer.] 



Avocet near Rye. — On March 21st, near Rye, I saw an Avocet. 

 Others have seen it since with me, at the same place, and we have 

 been able to get near enough to see its curved bill and blue legs 

 quite clearly. "When settled it looked quite white at a little distance, 

 except for the black on the head. It flew with its legs stretched out 

 behind, and then the black on the wings gave it a pied appearance. — 

 H. G. Alexander (3, Mayfield Road, Tunbridge Wells). 



Knot (Tringa canutus) in Wiltshire. — As the Rev. A. C. Smith, in 

 ' The Birds of Wiltshire,' only mentions three instances of the occur- 

 rence of this bird in Wiltshire, it may be worth recording that on 

 Feb. 27th last I caught a Knot (female) in a field about half a mile from 

 Salisbury. It had lost part of one wing, no doubt from flying against 

 a telegraph-wire, and was very thin and weak. — Arthur Bankes 

 (Leadenhall, The Close, Salisbury). 



Great Skua at the Fseroes. — In the last issue of ' The Zoologist ' 

 (pp. 81 et seq.) I read that two English collecting ornithologists visited 

 the Faeroes in the summer of 1905, and on one of the southern islands 

 they found the eggs of three pairs of the Great Skua (Stercorarius catar- 

 rhactes). It would be right, I think, to inform your readers that the 

 few remaining Great Skuas have been fully protected by Act of the 

 Danish Parliament of Dec. 18th, 1897, renewed in 1903 ; so that no 

 collecting is allowed. The inhabitants of the Faeroes deserve great 

 praise for having done their best to preserve these magnificent birds 

 on their islands ; it would be a pity if their efforts should be frustrated. 

 In spite of all protection the number of breeding Skuas diminished 

 considerably from 1897 to 1903. — Herluf Winge (Vice-Inspector at 

 the Zool. Museum, Copenhagen). 



