LETTERS 



ORKNEY BREEDING-RECORDS OF GREY LAG-GOOSE AND 

 LONG-TAILED DUCK. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — I am glad that Mr. Hale has questioned these two records 

 (supra, p. 199), for since recording the nesting of the Grey Lag-Goose 

 in Orkney in Vol. III., p. 370, I have had doubts as to whether the 

 pair were genuine wild birds, for on the spring-migration I know of 

 more than one case where Grey Lags have left the migrating skeins 

 and joined tame geese in Orcadian farm-yards, sometimes remaining 

 for considerable periods. The pair in question were probably, I now 

 consider, semi-domesticated, and if so my record will not stand. The 

 case of the Long-tailed Duck nesting in Orkney is still more doubtful,, 

 and I protested against the record from the moment it was published, 

 for as I pointed out in The Annals of Scottish Natural History some 

 years ago, hardly, if ever, a year passes without one or more pairs 

 remaining on Loch Stenness throughout the summer, which of course 

 is no proof that they nest there, such being in all probability womided 

 birds vmable to make the passage. H. W. Robinson., 



SPORADIC NESTING AND THE CROSSBILL. 

 To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — I have been much interested in the sporadic nesting contro- 

 versy, especially where reference is made to the Crossbill, and think 

 that Mr. Witherby is too hard on Mr. Bmiyard. 



Surely Mr. Bunyard's evidence is as worthy of credit as Mr. Witherby's- 

 assertion that the Crossbill in Ireland " was not indigenous " ; can 

 Mr. Witherby prove that the Crossbill has not bred in Ireland for the 

 last hundred years, or five hundred years if you like ? It is pretty 

 easy to make an assertion of that kind but very difficult of proof ; 

 we must remember that whereas one hundred years ago there were 

 few observers of the movements of birds in the British Islands, there 

 are now thousands, and that ths fauna of Ireland was perhaps less 

 known than any other part. As regards England, I have positive 

 proof of the bird nesting in Norfolk in 1887, 1889, 1890, and in 1889 

 in Suffolk, and I have evidence that it bred in 1888; but we will let- 

 that pass. 



