WATERFOWL AND THE AMERICAN POND-WEED 8i 



August, September, and October being the months of record. Their 

 nests have been searched for here without success, but they breed 

 in other parts of the Lewis. 



Fork-tailed Petrel {Frocellaria leucorrhoa). — One of this 

 species was got at the lantern in October 191 2. 



The list is not complete without the addition of a Carolina 

 Crake got on 12th November 191 3, by Mr Blain, Galson 

 Lodge. Mention need hardly be made of the four Parakeets 

 which were here in July 1914, as they had been escaped birds 

 from some passing vessel, although they were exceedingly 

 fresh plum aged, and strong on the wing. 



Had I been a collector and not an observer only, the list 

 would doubtless have had other additions. More especially 

 does this remark apply to the smaller migrants, for of these 

 I have included none whose identification was doubtful. 

 Uncertain visitors being seen, one would with more enthusiasm 

 follow them up in the hope of adding a rare or new species 

 to the avifauna than they would do to make only another 

 observation, and, perhaps, further increase their uncertainty. 

 Who among ardent ornithologists cannot recall several of 

 these annoying doubtfuls, which they could not record ? 



WATERFOWL Ax\D THE AMERICAN POND- 

 WEED {ELODEA CANADENSIS). 



By The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., F.R.S. 



A NOTABLE addition to the dietary of British waterfowl 

 was made about the middle of last century by the introduc- 

 tion of the American pond-weed, then known as Anacharis 

 alsinastruin, but in recent classification as Elodea Canadensis. 

 It is a dioecious plant and, so far as I know, only the female 

 form has reached this country, wherefore no seeds are pro- 

 duced on this side of the Atlantic. Even if they were so, it is 

 40 L 



