492 
Letters, Announcements, fyc. 
species ( Graculus africanus), recorded in the present volume 
of f The Ibis’ ( antea , p. 354), should stand as 282, instead 
of 221. 
Yours &c., 
J* H. Gurney. 
Sirs,— There is a peculiar white stage of plumage in which 
the Glaucous Gull is not unfrequently found, which, while 
from time to time it has attracted a good deal of notice,, has 
never received a satisfactory solution. It is a stage at which 
the bird is wholly white or, to speak more correctly, a very 
light cream-colour. The idea that it is the garb of extreme 
old age is dismissed; but there can be no doubt, I think, that 
it is a state which most Glaucous Gulls assume, and at no 
very juvenile time of their lives. Some time ago I saw at 
Bridlington a Glaucous Gull which was to me very inter¬ 
esting ; for the mantle of grey was blotched with white in 
large patches, showing that it was passing from the white 
stage to the normal adult colour; at least so it seemed to me 
after examining it as well as I could through the glass of 
the case. This bird had been kept alive, and, what was very 
remarkable about it, its eye was as white as a Jackdaw’s. 
If it be a law that the pure white phase of the Glaucous 
Gull is a phase which most individuals have to pass through, 
it is not unlikely that the same holds good of the Iceland Gull, 
a species so closely approximate that many good naturalists 
are puzzled to distinguish a large specimen of the one sort 
from a small one of the other. I have seen two pure white 
Iceland Gulls which, from their small size, I am sure were 
Icelanders, and not Glaucous Gulls. 
Yours &c., 
J. H. Gurney, Jun. 
Northrepps Cottage, Norwich. 
June 23, 1877. 
Sirs, —During a recent visit to Malaga I saw two live 
Trumpeter Bullfinches (Erythrospiza githaginea) , both ap- 
