102 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vi. 



Increase of Grey Lag-Goose on the Solway. — An 

 increase in the numbers of Anser anser on both shores of 

 the Solway has been reported during the last few years, and 

 this seems to have been confirmed for 1911 so far as the 

 English side is concerned in the reports received bj^ Messrs. 

 Hope and Thorpe (ZooL, 1912, p. 182). They were seen 

 throughout January, and a gaggle of forty appeared so late 

 as April 14th, while " Grey " Geese on July 4th and 25th 

 may have been of this species ; on November 21st a flock 

 of one hundred and fifty is reported. 



Flight of the Common Snipe, — Mr. F. J. Stubbs records 

 {ZooL, 1912, p. 196) that while watching a Snipe (Gallinago g. 

 gallinago) flying about, he very distinctly saw it on some six 

 different occasions twist completely over and proceed for 

 some yards with outstretched Avings helly uppermost. This 

 it did not only when descending in the " switchback " drum- 

 ming movement, but also when flying straight along near the 

 ground. Mr. Stubbs particularly noted that in its descent 

 in the drumming attitude, but back doxMiwards, no sound was 

 produced and this one would expect, as the pressure of the 

 air would in this case be on the upper side of the web of the 

 tail-feathers. The observation is confirmed in a subsequent 

 number of our contemporary by Messrs. H. Eliot Howard and 

 J. S. Huxley. 



Common Snipe nesting in Bedfordshire. — On May 2nd, 

 1912, Mr, J. Steele Elliott found two nests of Gallinago g. 

 gallinago in some marshy meadoAv-land in Bedfordshire in 

 which county, he states, no satisfactory^ instance of the bird 

 having nested has previously been recorded; {ZooL, 1912, 

 p. 197). 



Black Tern in Wigtownshire. — Mr. J. C. Gordon records 

 {Scot. Nat., 1912, p. 165) that he saw a single Hydrochelidon 

 n. nigra in company with one or two Common Terns on 

 June 2nd, 1912, on Soulseat Loch (Inch). The bird is a rare 

 vagrant in west Scotland. 



Early arrival of Summer-Birds in " Clyde." — In his 

 annual report on the arrival of migrants {Glasgow Nat., 

 Vol. IV., pp. 66-70) Mr. J. Paterson states that a result of 

 the continuously fine weather in the spring of 1912 Mas that 

 the summer-birds appeared undoubtedly earlier than usual. 

 Mr. Paterson remarks that it is necessary to go back to the 

 exceptional spring of 1893 to find a parallel to the " pre- 

 cocious appearance of several species." 



