Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/607

Rh of British Birds in the possession of Mr. E.M. Connop of Rollesby Hall, near Great Yarmouth, Mr. Cole, the Norwich bird preserver, pointed out to me a Herring Gull, which he said the late Mr. Stevenson had examined in the flesh, and believed to be Larus cachinnans. At his request Mr. Cole had noted the colour of the soft parts on the back of the case, and a careful examination led me to endorse the opinion expressed by Mr. Stevenson. Mr. Howard Saunders has also been good enough to examine the bird, and expresses himself quite satisfied with the correctness of the determination. The bird was shot by the veteran gunner, John Thomas, on Breydon Water, near Great Yarmouth, and sent by him in the flesh to Mr. Cole, on the 4th of November, 1886: it proved to be a male by dissection, and differed from the Common Herring Gull in the darkness of the mantle; the legs were a beautiful lemon yellow, and the bare ring round the eye deep orange-red. The mantle and orbital ring still retain their normal colour, but the legs have unfortunately been painted pale yellow, which Mr. Cole assures me he imitated from nature. The late season at which this southern species was killed seems remarkable; but still later in the same year (on December 26th), and in the same locality, a beautiful adult example of the Mediterranean Black-headed Gull was killed. I am not aware of any previous occurrence of L. cachinnans in Britain having been recorded.— (Norwich).

Note on Flight of Green Sandpiper.—On the 4th September last I flushed in some marshes near here a bird that I thought, from its note and flight, to be a Wood Sandpiper (Totanus glareola). It rose with a very feeble sibilous note, and skimmed along close to the water till it settled again. I had some years ago killed the species close to the same spot, and that circumstance strengthened my conjecture as to the species. I flushed this bird several times without getting a shot, but its flight and note were always the same. Wishing to identify the bird, I went to the same locality again on the 7th September (three days later), when I again found the bird, which rose with the same note and flight. At its last rise I got a shot and killed it, and was surprised to find that it was the Green Sandpiper (T. ochropus). I have frequently met with this last species through many past years, and without exception it has risen wild, with a loud and shrill cry, invariably mounting high into the air, and never skimming the water. It seems, therefore, that the Green Sandpiper at certain times or seasons rises with the note and habit as to flight of the Wood Sandpiper. It would be interesting to know whether others have observed this variation of flight and note in T. ochropus.— (St. Albans Court, near Wingham, Kent).

Green Woodpecker boring in November.—While out after Wood-pigeons on November 16th, I was much surprised to see in a decayed