Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/496

468 readily distinguish the difference, I should say much more easily than between Carrion Crows' and Rooks' eggs, or eggs of other closely allied species. Like most others, they vary among themselves. The Roseates', for instance, in the density of the creamy yellow ground colour, some being very pale, others of a buff stone-colour. The markings generally consist of small speckles of reddish brown with small smoky grey underlying spots, distributed more or less all over the shell; others are marked with larger spots and occasionally blotches of a deep reddish brown, and sometimes there is a trace of the markings forming a zone round the thick end. Never, as in the case of Arctic and Common Terns' eggs, does the ground colour consist of a dark stone-colour, brown, bluish, green, dull green, or ashy grey, and they have a common characteristic different to those of the other species mentioned; while the eggs of the Roseate Tern are generally more elongated than those of the Common and Arctic species. As a rule the clutch consists of two eggs only, very rarely are there three.— (14, Bootham Crescent, York).

Little Gull and Red-necked Phalarope in Sussex.—On Aug. 11th last I saw shot, at the mouth of Rye Harbour, Sussex, a very fine immature male specimen of the Little Gull, Larus minutus. It was on the sands in company with a Common Tern; the weight was 4½ oz. On referring to 'The Zoologist' for the last seven or eight years, I was unable to find any recorded so early in the autumn. The bird is now in my possession. On Sept. 13th last a friend and myself obtained, in the Channel at Rye Harbour, two immature Red-necked Phalaropes, Phalaropus hyperboreus, both females, one weighing 1 oz., the other just over that weight. The birds have been jointly identified with Mr. Bristow, of St. Leonards.— (166, Mount Pleasant Road, Hastings).

Common Swift roosting in Tree.—Last evening (Sept. 2nd), at seven o'clock, I was near the top of Stepney Hill, Scarborough, and saw two Swifts, Cypselus apus, flying near some isolated ash trees by the roadside. Presently one of the birds flew into a tree, amongst the smaller lateral branches, and as I thought to take flies from the leaves. After repeating this action the bird, to my great surprise, clung to a pendant branchlet, amongst its leaves, and there hung suspended vertically, its long wings drooping below the tail, at first in horseshoe form, and then afterwards brought together. The bird hung suspended at about twenty feet from the ground whilst I watched below for a quarter of an hour, till darkness and rain, which was falling freely, sent me away. I left the bird there hanging motionless, quite indifferent to the rain and breeze, which caused it continuously to sway backwards and forwards like a suspended scarecrow. The companion bird approached, and had a look at the other two or three