70 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of the Irides ; and if you can send the weight and measures ; and 

 pack them as dry as possible with something between each. The 

 great grey Gull of your County I never saw. The Hagden or dark 

 brown Gull is quite new to me and probably non descript. There- 

 fore be assured I shall be impatient to see them. Direct the box to 

 Eichard Morris Esqre. at the Navy Office and advise Him of the 

 Time and method of conveyance. I hope Mrs. Borlase is better 

 than when you wrote last. I beg my compliments to her and am 

 Dear Sir, with . , . esteem, 



" Your most obedient Ser ., 

 " Bychton. Octr. 27th. T. Pennant." 



The really good figure of the Gannet in the ' British Zoology ' was 

 evidently executed, as Pennant says, from a fresh subject ; and the 

 specimen killed on September 30th, 1762, and sent to Pennant by 

 Borlase was doubtless a preserved' skin. With it Borlase sent the 

 " brief Nat. Hist.' of the bird asked for, which Pennant printed 

 verbatim in the ' Zoology.' The Great Grey Gull is believed to be the 

 Larus marinus in immature dress, but it might have been a Glaucous 

 Gull in some cases. The Tarrock is of course the young of the 

 Kittiwake. Pennant, once converted to this view, retracted the 

 opinion in the 1776 edition. Hagdown is a name given to the Great 

 Shearwater, and the " Hagden or dark brown Gull " was doubtless 

 the Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus), and this is perhaps the 

 earliest mention of it as a British bird. — 0. V. Aplin (Bloxham). 



Stone Pellets Cast by Curlews. — Wandering, lately, along the 

 east side of this island (Cumbrae), I came to a stretch of grassland, 

 150 ft. above sea-level, where I found a pellet of small white stones — 

 chiefly bits of quartz — which had obviously been brought up from 

 the shore. I wondered what bird could have brought them there 

 until, further along, I found a number of small heaps of stones with 

 occasional bits of sea-shell amongst them, which proved to be similar 

 pellets which had been washed down by rain. Finally I realized I 

 was on a favourite roosting-place of the Curlews, which I had noticed 

 them frequenting lately. Last Sunday I heard a few Curlews calling 

 at night in a similar grassy hollow above my house, which they 

 have not frequented lately ; to-day I went up there and found two 

 pellets. The pellets are about one inch long by half an inch broad, 

 and consist of thirty to forty small bits of quartz, and weigh about 

 four grams : some of them contain a few bits of shell, and one 

 consists almost entirely of shell. Judging by the numbers of pellets 

 found on the roosting-place, I should say that they are formed 



