MB. SOUTHWELL ON AUDITIONS TO THE NORWICH CASTLE-MUSEUM. 391 
including a so-called Common Skua, killed at Lowestoft, have 
been given by Mr. Geoffrey Fowell Buxton, making our series of 
mounted Skuas very complete as to age and sex, and the remarkable 
phases of plumage conspicuous in the birds of this genus. 
Mr. Connop has also given a male Gadwall, which was required to 
complete' the case of a pair of these birds with nest and eggs, to 
illustrate its breeding in the County of Norfolk. A few eggs have 
been added .to the collection, the most noteworthy of which are 
two eggs of the New Zealand Laughing Owl, a species well repre- 
sented in our collection, but which there is little doubt will soon 
become extinct ; its eggs, therefore, for which we have to thank 
Mr. Gurney, are a very valuable acquisition. 
With regard to the additions to the collection of Raptorial Birds, 
Mr. Gurney has kindly furnished me with the following notes : — 
“ With the increasing difficulty of getting new species, it cannot 
be expected that every year the Raptorial collection will be enriched 
by novelties; but 1897 has not passed without five good Hawks 
and three Owls falling in our way, which shall here be enumerated. 
A well-mounted Gennaia gurney i, presented by Professor Menzbier, 
shot February 6th, 1897, is evidently adult from the purity of its 
chest, and whiteness of head ; and has been placed by Mr. Reeve 
in the first corridor, next to G. suker and G. hendersoni , with the 
latter of which Mr. Dresser seeks to unite it (‘ Birds of Europe,’ sup. 
part vi.). It has by no means the rufous back that G. hendersoni 
( milvipes ) has, nor does it resemble it in its barring on the back, 
and 1 cannot think it is the same (cf. Orn. d. Turkestan, part iii). 
“An adult female of Urospizias (A star) sijlvestris (Wallace), from 
the low country in Flores Island which is south of the Celebes, 
sent by Mr. Everett, through Mr. E. Gerrard of London, is ticketed 
* irides deep red, bill jet black, cere deep pure chrome, the basal 
half of bill and eyelids lighter chrome yellow, legs dull wax yellow.’ 
It agrees well with a pair in the Museum collected many years ago 
by Mr. A. R. Wallace, except that in Wallace’s the eyes are marked 
as having been orange. My father’s remarks on U. sijlvestris, and 
its ally U. torquutus, will be found in the ‘Ibis’ for 1881, p. 266, 
by any one who may desire to consult them. 
“A very good summer pair of Tinnuneulus peninsularis (Mearns), 
showing the larger size of the female, procured by Mr. J. F. Abbott, 
collector to Mr. \\ . Trice, at Sierra Laqura, in Lower California. 
