Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/352

320 one of these birds, in which case all doubt as to the genuineness of the occurrence would be satisfied.—

Alleged Kentish Plover in Bedfordshire.—On the 26th May last I was watching a small party of Ringed Plover and Dunlin at the Bedford Sewage Farm. On observing the former closely through my field glasses, I noticed that one of them differed considerably from the rest, more especially in not having the complete black gorget, but only black patches on the shoulders, and also in having dark legs instead of yellow ones as the rest had. It was also a lighter colour on the back. I made a note of these points, and found, on reference to Mr. Howard Saunders's 'Manual,' that I was correct in identifying this bird as the Kentish Plover (Ægialitis antiana). I am not aware of the occurrence of this bird in Bedfordshire on any previous occasion.—

Iceland Gull in Co. Sligo in Summer.—On June 18th, when driving from Enniscrone to Oghill, about two miles from the sea, I passed a field that was being prepared for turnip-sowing, and to my great surprise, amongst a flock of about twenty immature Herring Gulls, I perceived an Iceland Gull (Larus leucopterus). The bird, as usual, was very tame, feeding within three or four yards of the man and horses, and, as it fed within ten or twelve yards of the public road where I was standing, I had an excellent opportunity for observing it with my glass. It appeared to be a bird of last year, for, although the head and neck were very light coloured, the shoulders and back were rather dark; but the long white primaries were very conspicuous. Probably the bird would not exhibit the creamy coloured stage of plumage until after this autumn's moult. The occurrence of the Iceland Gull in summer is very unusual, and the only other occasion on which it has been observed at this time of year in this county was on June 5th, 1896, when an adult specimen was found dead on the sands of Mullaghmore by Mr. C. Lanham, of Tempo Manor, Co. Fermanagh.— (Moyview, Ballina).

Note on the Petrel, Oceanodroma castro (Harcourt).—In recently looking over the Fourteenth Report on Danish Birds, compiled by Herr Herluf Winge, and published in the Danish journal ' Videnskab. Meddel. fra den naturh. Foren. i Kjoben.' for 1897, pp. 237-310, I was surprised to learn that two examples of this species (better known as O. cryptoleucura (Ridg.), but see the 'Ibis,' 1898, pp. 313, 314) were killed at lightships in September and October, 1896. Herr Winge has access to specimens in the University Museum at Copenhagen, and, after comparison of the two specimens in question with skins of O. leucorrhoa, he is evidently of opinion that