118 
head and neck in these examples being of an almost even mouse- 
coloured tint/'*’ scarcely mottled at all, with the under parts of the 
plumage far more grey than hroAvn. In most of these, also, the 
broad margins to the feathers of the back are of a rich chestnut 
instead of pale brown ; but as to the exact colour of the feet and 
legs I cannot speak positively, not having examined them until 
the tints had much faded. From Mr. Cole’s observations when 
skinning them they would seem to have varied as to the base of 
the toes and webs, and forepart of tarsi, from a bluish tinge to a 
■warm flesh t colour and oven clayey yellow; which may account 
for the diverse descriptions of these parts by various authors. So 
great, however, is the variation in the plumage of these first-}'’ear 
birds that it seems almost impossible to say positively to which 
lorni they really belong ; and the conclusions arrived at when 
examining the freshly killed specimens seem less and less reliable, 
as the tints fade and alter, materially, in the preserved skins. 
Four of these young Pomatorhines, which I found it impossible to 
class at all, I can only suppose to be the result of “ mixed 
marriages,” such as Mr. Saunders refers to in the case of the light 
and dark forms of Pichardson’s Skua, and are about calculated to 
drive an Ornithologist wild. 
Several adult and very beautiful specimens of Buffon’s Skua 
were shot on ditferent parts of our coast at the same time with the 
Pomatorhines. Mr. Cole had one on the 20th, picked up 
exhausted, but not dead, on the beach at Hasborough, in fine 
plumage, very yellow on the sides of the neck, but the long middle 
tail-feathers, unfortunately injured at the tips, being scarcely more 
than 3J- in. longer than the rest of the tail. About the same date 
as the last Mr. T. W. Cromer, of Beeston, near Cromer, obtained 
an adult bird, which, as he informs me, was knocked over with a 
stone by a boy on Beeston Common. It was in company with 
I liave two specimens of this kind killed at Yarmouth in October, 
1870, which were given tome by IMr. J. II. Gurney, jun., wiio inirchased 
them in Leadenhall Market. 
t It will be seen that Mr. Gould gives the under surface of the foot as 
reddish flesh colour. 
