Birds. 



8331 



The Gray Phalarope (Phalaropus platyrhynchus) in Norfolk. — On the 31st of 

 October a very beautiful specimen of the gray phalarope was killed at Saltbouse, a 

 very favourite locality ; and another close by, at Wells. — Henri/ Stevenson ; Norwich. 



The Gray Phalarope at Brighton. — I have seen several specimens of the gray 

 phalarope at Mr. A. Bryant's, at Brighton. — John Dutton ; South Street, Eastbourne. 



The Egyptian Goose (Anser aegyptiacus) in the Cambridgeshire Fens. — A week or 

 so since I received a call from a gunner who had two magnificent specimens of this 

 goose, one alive but winged, which he shot on the night previously in Burwell Fen, 

 Cambridgeshire: they were in beautiful feather. It is sometimes asserted that these 

 birds are only escaped captives from some ornamental piece of water. I would inform 

 sportsmen holding this opinion that only about four or five years since I saw six which 

 were shot out of a large flock on Whittlesea Mere ; the flock consisted of twenty or 

 thirty. The species generally makes its visits to us once in three or four years. — 

 S. P. Saville. 



The Redthroated Diver (Colymbns septentrionalis) in Norfolk. — Between the 1st 

 and 15th of October three fine specimens of the redthroated diver, in full summer 

 plumage, were killed at Cromer, Blakeney and Sutton ; and more recently I learn 

 that about a dozen of these birds have been shot off Sherringham, having probably 

 followed the shoals of herring along our eastern coast. One of these birds being held 

 up by the legs when dead, sixteen small fish dropped from its capacious throat. — 

 Henry Stevenson ; Norwich. 



The Normal and Abnormal Puffins. — In the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 8003) there is a 

 very interesting paragraph on the normal and abnormal puffins, in which the heads 

 of the two birds are figured. In the latter end of last October I shot a specimen of 

 the puffin, whose beak does not correspond with either of those figured. It is of a 

 brown colour, without grooves ; the lines represented on it are slightly elevated, and 

 of a paler colour than the surrounding parts. The cheeks are pale smoke-colour. 

 Eyes encircled by a narrow, naked, brown skin. Feet flesh-colour. This bird is cer- 

 tainly and distinctly the young of the common puffin ; and if the bird only takes one 



year to arrive at maturity, the abnormal must be a distinct bird ; but is the puffin 

 mature in so short a time, or does it, like others of the sea-fowl, require three years to 

 attain maturity ? I am of opinion it does, and consequently I consider the abnormal 

 the young of the normal in firsts winter ; the bird I figure is the same in second winter. 

 How easily this complicated question of the normal and abnormal might be solved by 

 procuring specimens of the young puffin before the autumnal migration ! If the birds 

 thus procured corresponded with the abnormal, the question would be ended ; if, on 



