IIG 
coverts, has the under ones nearly pure brown. As a rule, how- 
ever, the dark pectoral-band and partially barred under tail-coverts 
go together. 
There seemed to be no appreciable difference in the size of males 
and females, or any satisfactory means of identifying the sexes 
short of dissection. 
I am at a loss to account for the torn condition of the webs of 
the feet in some specimens, young as well as adult; in some cases 
having a sort of vandyked appearance, the webs being split up to 
the base of the toes. 
Tlio length of the middle tail-feathers — when perfect — is doubt- 
less a further proof of maturity, but the damaged state of these 
feathers in the majority of the adult specimens examined, rendered 
it difficult to draw any conclusions on that point ; though, from the 
few measurements given, it would seem that the median tail- 
feathers are longest in the males. In some specimens the two 
middle tail-feathers had evidently been shot off ; in others 
apparently broken by rough handlmg ; and in some, possibly, were 
absent from an incomplete moult. A few had one only remaining, 
and but six out of the thirty-four at Cole’s had the two uninjured. 
No. 7, though in all other respects a genuine Pomatorhine, \vas 
remarkable for the pointed shape of the median tail-feathers, 
though twisted as usual. 
From the immature birds in the above series, it was not difficult 
to select six of the normal type ; birds of the year, in the plumage 
they are ordinarily met with on our coast in autumn,* and repre- 
senting, no doubt, the offspring of the purely white-breasted form. 
These half-dozen specimens answered more or less to the descrip- 
tion of the immature plumage, as given by Parrel], and as 
represented by the second figure in Gould’s ‘ Birds of Great 
Britain,’ 
In all, the upper and under parts were mottled and barred with 
two shades of brown, the marginal tips to the feathers on the back 
* I have a curious light-coloured variety of the Pomatorhine Skua, shot 
at Yarmouth in November, 1871, which, though evidently a bird of the year, 
has the head, neck all round, and the under parts generally of a liglit 
isabelline tint, the usual markings faintly showing, as in some light bull- 
coloured varieties pf Skylarks, Thrushes, etc. 
