Ornithological Notes. 



365 



large frog was much altered by the digestive process, but its 

 hind legs, which projected upwards into the gullet, were 

 very little changed. The caput csecum was small, measur- 

 ing only about one-eighth of an inch, and had no projecting 

 csecal appendages. Another specimen, a female, was also 

 examined ; it was shot in October last, between Ayton and 

 Coldingham, Berwickshire. 



(6.) Podiceps cristatus (Penn.) Great Crested Grebe, 

 ("pellet" in stomach). — The specimen exhibited was shot in 

 the Firth of Forth, near Queensferry, on 27th January 

 1862. It measured 21 inches in length ; wing from carpal 

 joint to point of primaries, 7f inches. Bill nearly two 

 inches in length, of a pale carmine tint, with a dusky stripe 

 along its ridge, and tip of greyish white ; small white spot 

 between eye and bill. In wing, the primaries are brown, 

 one or two of the last being slightly tipped with white ; 

 secondaries pure white, with the exception of two or three 

 of the last feathers, which are more or less tipped with 

 brown, and the coverts of the primaries and secondaries are 

 brown ; the humeral feathers and their coverts are pure 

 white, and this white colour runs forward along the lesser 

 coverts at the anterior margin of wing, gradually diminish- 

 ing in breadth towards the carpal joint. The scapulars are 

 dark-brown or greyish -brown, like the rest of the back. The 

 expanded wing, therefore, displays the primaries brown, 

 and a broad band of brown obliquely crossing the white 

 wing from the carpal joint to the points of the last secon- 

 daries. The axillaries are white. Feet and legs greenish- 

 brown on outside ; inside, pale yellowish-green. The bird 

 is a female ; the muscular gizzard measured 2J inches in 

 length, with a thick, rugose cuticular lining ; it contained 

 a nearly dry rounded mass, about the size of a small walnut, 

 which, when broken up by the ringer, was seen to consist of 

 various black and white feathers, apparently taken from the 

 bird itself, and the remains of what appeared to be the spines 

 and skins of shrimps or other crustaceans. Masses of this 

 kind have been often noticed in the stomach of this bird, 

 and have been variously described. The pyloric orifice of 

 the stomach was seen to be very small, and it was at once 



