Kittiwake.-Breeds in some numbers in Guernsey, Alderney and

Sark.

Common Gull.-Not very common.

Herring Gull.-The common gull of the Channel Islands. Breeds in great numbers in Guernsey, Sark and Alderney, and a few at Jettro and Herm. I caught three young ones on the rocks at Sark, and brought them home; they are now very tame and always hungry.

Lesser Blackbacked Gull.-Not very common; I saw a few at each of the breeding stations of the herring gull. I shot one of these birds on the 17th of July, in a transition state, of which the following is a description:-Beak generally dark horn-colour, with occasional patches of yellow, and two small patches of red on the angle of the lower mandible. Head, neck and breast dirty white, with a few small streaks of brown on the nape. Back generally black, almost Scapulars the same. Lesser

the same colour as the mature bird. wing-coverts dusky, almost black and light brown, making two bands on one wing; on the other the bands are by no means so distinct, the dark and light feathers being more muddled together. Great coverts nearly the same, forming a dark and light band on each wing. Quills dark dusky, almost black. Secondaries the same, with white tips, and edges very much worn. Tertials dark dusky, with white tips. Tail-coverts and tail white, except the second and third feathers on each side of the tail, which are more or less speckled with brown, especially on the inner web; the tips of these four feathers are dark brown, edged with white. The eye, I think, was yellow; but I am sorry to say I forgot to make a note of it at the time. This bird is evidently in a state of moult, the lighter feathers on the body and wings being very much rubbed, and indeed worn quite ragged; the darker, on the other hand, appears more perfect. The specimen, on

the whole, is rather an ugly one, but interesting as showing the change of plumage.

Great Blackbacked Gull.-Not nearly so numerous as the last. I have occasionally seen one on the sands of Vozon Bay, Guernsey, and also on the sandy beach to the northward of Herm.

These are all the birds I have been able to observe myself, but my visits to the Channel Islands having always been in the summer, of course the list is very short of including all the birds. There is a tolerably good Museum in St. Peter's Port, Guernsey, but it is now unfortunately much neglected, many of the best specimens being moth

eaten to such an extent as to be scarcely recognizable; moreover, though professing to be a collection of birds killed in the Islands, it is hardly to be depended upon as such, as I am told many of the specimens were old skins collected by a Jersey birdstuffer, and sent over by him when he left, without any information as to whether they had been killed in these Islands or in France. This Museum I imagine to have been the foundation of Professor Ansted's List of the Birds of the Channel Islands.

Bishop's Lydeard, August 20, 1866.

CECIL SMITH.

"Occasional and Accidental Visitors."—I have long intended making a few remarks on the introduction into local lists of species which have no real claim to be considered true natives of the country in question, and I am induced now to do so by the allusion to the subject in the Preface to your Dictionary of British Birds.' Every true naturalist cannot but have felt the incongruity of such birds as the swallowtailed kite, the redwinged starling, or the spinetailed swallow, being mixed up in our ornithological works and collections with sparrows, crows, chaffinches, and other mere vulgar birds. As you well observe, in the Preface to your Dictionary of British Birds,' the time has come for reform. Now that the geographical distribution of species, the existence of local races, the theory of "centres of creation," and the influence of climate and food, are being studied on scientific principles, the days for swelling out lists of "British" birds with such quasi-natives is surely past. The custom savours more of the dealer and mere collector than of the true and earnest inquirer into Nature, and had it not unfortunately been sanctioned by such men as Montagu, Selby and Yarrell, it could scarcely have survived so long as it has. But, on the other hand, is it desirable, even if it were possible, totally to discard these illustrious strangers, to preserve no memento of their visits, to give no clew to the identification of other wanderers of the same kind? Are we totally to ignore the occurrence in Britain of many most beautiful and interesting species, and to cast them into outer darkness as aliens and interlopers? Surely not. Some of them, even when attention is called to them, may prove to be really natives, although rare, as witness the case of the black redstart, of Savi's warbler, and of the great sedge warbler. Had the first capture of these species not been recorded and the specimens carefully described, the discovery of their more frequent occurrence and of their breeding in those isles might have been indefinitely postponed. Evidently, then, what is wanted is some middle course, which would keep these wanderers from swamping the true natives in our catalogues and collections, and yet preserve due memory of their advent. What this course may be, it lies with our ornithologists to decide; but I would, with all deference, suggest that in systematically arranged faunas, lists and collections, the accidental visitors should always be kept in a separate and supplementary series, while the indigenous species are given their due precedence. This is done in the list at the end of Dr. Bree's excellent work on 'The Birds of Europe,' and it seems to me that the example should be universally followed. Thus our true Fauna would be shown in its due proportions: " the truth, the whole

truth, and nothing but the truth" would be told, and yet those (and they are many) who confine their attention to British species would not be deprived of information as to those often interesting natives of other climes who may be wafted by adverse winds, or driven by some other strange chance, to those inhospitable shores.--Edward R. Alston; 205, Bath Street, Glasgow, September 4, 1866.

Albinos. Since my last account of albinos I have added to my collection and seen many more curious instances of real or part albinos. Of the blackbird I have seen several pied varieties, and one beautiful cream-coloured and white female (still distinguishable by her rust-coloured breast), cream-coloured thrushes, a creamcoloured magpie, a half white stonechat (in my collection), a shag with a white crest (a very striking thing), and a perfect albino curlew, the eyes and bill being even pink; this bird is in my collection. A friend informs me that he has for me a perfect albino of the common sandpiper, with pink eyes and bill. Of the last two birds I never knew albinos before. A corn crake also in peculiar plumage is worth recording: the top of the head, the neck, back, rump and scapulars rust-colour, edged with yellowish gray; wing-coverts and the sides red, barred with white; wing-quills of an uniform brick-red; breast cream-colour; sides of the head slightly tinged with blue; eyes pink; feet and bill rich flesh-colour. A marsh harrier containing many white feathers. Two or three pied chaffinches, a pied wren and a cream-coloured swallow. Real albinos invariably remain white; this is nothing unusual. Many examples are to be met with even in the human species. White feathers caused by disease will undoubtedly in the following moult, if a healthy one, assume the true colour, but natural white feathers never change. -H. Blake-Knox; Dalkey, Co. Dublin, August 29, 1866.

Food of the Hobby.—In the stomach of an immature male of this species, killed on the 26th of June last, at Langley, in Norfolk, I discovered nearly the whole of the remains of a gray linnet, two examples of the ghost swift moth, a large dragonfly and several small beetles: the wings of the dragonfly were taken off close to the body; the moths and beetles were swallowed whole.-T. E. Gunn; 3, West Pottergate, Norwich.

Black Redstart in the North of Ireland.—An old male example of this bird is to be seen at Mr. Sheals', birdstuffer, Belfast. I forget from whence it came, but he got it in the flesh.-H. Blake-Knox; Dalkey, Co. Dublin, August 29, 1866.

Late Song of the Nightingale.—Mr. Hayward, a perfectly reliable naturalist of this town, informs me that on Thursday, August 9th, whilst entomologizing in the early morning, he heard the full song of the nightingale in the wooded part of a park about a mile from Colchester. He saw the bird, and a friend passing the road at the time also heard the song. I have watched the habit of the nightingale for many years, but I never heard it sing in the wild state in August. As a rule, the song is first heard in the eastern counties the second week in April-often on the 11th or 12th. It lasts during the wooing, nest-building, egg-laying and incubation, but invariably stops when the young are hatched, the last week in May, or thereabouts. Of course the bird heard by Mr. Hayward may have been a disappointed lover sending forth its rich mellow notes of reproach before it flew away to softer climes; or it may have been an escaped prisoner from some wretched cage in which it had been shut up, sending forth its notes of triumph, just to hear how it would sound in the wild echoing grove. In any case the fact is worth recording, for, however simple, in Natural History a fact is worth many thoughts.-C. R. Bree; Colchester, August 11, 1866.- From the Field.'

The Common Starling: adoption of Cornwall as a breeding locality.-The starling, up to within a few years, withdrew entirely from Cornwall in February and March, and was never known to breed with us. This was not the case in most of the other southern counties, although I believe the bulk retired to the north, returning to the south and west at an early period in the autumn in enormous flocks, roosting at night in sedgy morasses, fir-plantations, ozier-beds, &c. I first heard of their adopting our county in the summer some years since from my brother, who lives in the eastern part of the county, when he wrote me word that a few pairs of starlings had in that and the few previous years bred in the hollow trees about his residence. Last year I received a letter announcing that they had reached the Bodmin country (the central district of Cornwall), and this week I received a communication from Mr. A. Chenhalls, who lives in the Land's End district, calling my attention to the autumnal flocks of starlings having made their appearance at least three weeks before the usual time. Whether we shall have the same honour and compliment paid us by nightingales remains to be proved; but these changes of residence are curious in the absence of any apparent reason for the change.-Edward Hearle Rodd; Penzance, September 17, 1866.

A Rook at Sea.-Hooded crows are very numerous, and frequently perch on our yards, attracted by the meat lashed to the masts. There are no rooks on the island (Shetland), there being no trees for their accommodation, but I noticed a lot of starlings and a mountain finch. Speaking of rooks reminds me of an account Captain Gravil gave me of one which came on board utterly exhausted, in the Greenland Sea or North German Ocean, two hundred miles from the nearest point of land, viz. the North of Scotland. This poor rook (he is certain as to the species) alighted on the yards, and was caught, confined and fed; and after a few days liberated, with full permission to depart in peace; but, strange to say, this usually shy bird chose to remain on board, running about the decks and amongst the men, and feeding sumptuously on potatoes and scraps, and roosting at night in the rigging. Arriving at Shetland, Captain Gravil sent the bird on shore, and sailed in the evening for Hull; but imagine his surprise and that of his crew, many of whom are now on board, when next morning, about breakfast time, they descried their late shipmate winging his way to the vessel (then more than forty miles from Lerwick, and out of sight of land), on which he alighted with a prodigious cawing and every token of satisfaction, and renewing his old habits and intimacy with all on board. This continued voluntarily on the rook's part until the vessel arrived in Hull, when he was put in a cage that he might be conveyed to Captain Gravil's garden, but unfortunately the boys, who always swarm on a whaler's deck directly she returns to port, got at him and poked him to death with sticks, to the regret and annoyance of all the ship's company.-C. E. Smith; S.S. 'Diana,'

Lerwick.

White Swallows.-I am on a stay at Llandrindrod Wells, Radnorshire, for the benefit of my health. In taking a drive through Horney, a village two miles distant from here, I observed a white swallow flying about with others. On my return I procured a gun, and was fortunate enough to again find the bird, which I brought down with its feathers uninjured. On examining it I found it perfectly white, except a dusky cream badge on the back. There were some boys present when I shot the bird; they informed me that there were several bred at a farm-house in the neighbourhood. I went and saw the farmer this morning, who informed me that there was a nest of

three, all white ones, and that he saw them previously to their flying. He also says that about four years ago there were two in the same neighbourhood, and both shot. Is not this a very unusual occurrence? I have been a sportsman upwards of twenty years, and never saw anything of the kind before.-C. Watkins; Holmen Park, Hereford.-From the Field.'

Whitebellied Swift in the Western Islands of Mayo.-Mr. Thomas Cullen, subcurator of Trinity College, Dublin, while on a dredging tour with Professor Wright, on the West Coast of Ireland, informs me that he saw several of this supposed alpine swift in the vicinity of Achill Island. This was in July last, so that they must breed there.-H. Blake-Knox; Dalkey, Co. Dublin, August 29, 1866. Swift in September.-You will no doubt be interested in the fact that I saw, on the 3rd of September, a swift sailing about, as if it was the middle of August, though without any companions. I watched it for some time, and had a perfectly clear view of it. On looking into 'Selborne,' I find that "a swift was once seen at Lyndon on September 3rd." It is curious that my day of observation should be the same; and the fact itself is the more remarkable in this northern part of England, and in a district where swifts are scarce even in the height of summer. It was just on the outskirts of the village: the weather was fine on Monday, but has since been unfavourable, else I should have looked again.-J. Gilbert White; Beeford, Hull, September 5, 1866. [Communicated by Thomas Bell, Esq., F.R.S., &c.]

Destructiveness of the Wood Pigeon.-In addition to "turnip tops, holly-berries, rowans, hips, haws, charlock (seeds, leaves and flowers)," may be added grain of all descriptions. From the time of the young grain hardening in the ear to the time of its harvesting, and from the time of its being sown to getting into the blade, they prey upon it, and do immeuse harm to it. Last harvest I saw one shot, the crop of which contained half a pint of tares; and the Duke of Richmond's gamekeeper shot one, the crop of which contained 858 grains of barley. Some time ago I saw one opened, that was said to have visited a field seven times one day before it was shot, and in the crop there was an imperial half pint of wheat. They are particularly injurious to peas and beans, both newly sown and when ripening. In winter they attack the clover plants, pecking out the centre buds, and they do the same to turnips, frequently pecking the bulbs also, which, thus injured, are very liable to be destroyed by frost. In this neighbourhood they are found in great flocks, and although a very shy bird, and bad to get at, above a hundred are frequently shot in a day, and readily sold at York for six-pence each. Considering the quantity one bird can and does destroy, and the great number of them, it will readily be conceded that they must be a great nuisance.—John Ranson; York.

Food of the Wood Pigeon.—I am glad to give my opinion as to the totally harmless character of that beautiful bird, the wood pigeon: in hard weather they come into our gardens and eat the winter greens, and in the fields they eat the turnip-tops, and there is no bird that does less mischief to the farmer. I am very glad you have invited opinions on this subject, as a very strong prejudice prevails throughout this county [Surrey] against this bird.-James Paine; near Godalming, September 1, 1866. [I rather invited the record of facts than opinions: an opinion, as instanced in both the preceding communications, is biassed by prejudices. Mr. Ranson considers the wood pigeon a great nuisance"; Mr. Paine calls it "totally harmless": again, I prefer to avoid all reference to gamekeepers' views of Natural History questions; the