VOL. VI.] NOTES. 283 



Supposed Scarlet Grosbeak in Oxfordshire. — ^Mr. 

 0. V. Aplin puts on record {Zool., 1912, p. 460) that Miss J. H. 

 Blunt, of Adderbury Manor, has made a coloured sketch 

 of a bird which she and others of her household saw from a 

 window on January 31st, 1912, wliilst it was feeding in a 

 courtyard. The bird, unknown at the time, was afterwards 

 identified as a specimen of Carpodacus erythrinus, and Mr. 

 Aplin thinks that anyone Avho saw the sketch would have 

 no doubt as to the correctness of the identification, and con- 

 siders that the bird was an adult male. It is not stated, 

 how^ever, whether the observer was acquainted with the 

 Crossbill, nor whether the shape of the bill was specially 

 observed. 



Reed - Warbler in Orkney. — On September 28th, 

 1912, Mr. H. I^aidlaw obtained a specimen of Acrocephalus 

 streperus on Auskerry (Scot. Nat., 1912, p. 278). The only 

 other records of the Reed- Warbler in Scotland are three at 

 Fair Isle. 



Supposed female Greenland Wheatears in male- 

 plumage. — In the Scottish Naturalist the Duchess of Bed- 

 ford records (1912, p. 210) that a specimen of (Enanthe 

 a\ leucorrhoa obtained on Barra (Outer Hebrides) on May 13th, 

 1912, has been sexed as a female by Mr. C. Kirk, taxidermist, 

 of Glasgow, although the bird is in the plumage of an adult 

 male, as is evident by the description given. The wing 

 measured 106 mm., which is larger than any female measured 

 by Dr. C. B. Ticehurst {cf. antca, Vol. IL, p. 273) or any 

 which we have ever seen. In the same journal (p. 259) 

 the Misses Baxter and Rintoul give details of a specimen, 

 also sexed as a female, which appears to be in the plumage 

 of a year-old male. The wing measures 101 mm., and this 

 bii'd Avas killed at the Isle of May Lighthouse on May 27th, 

 1911. Unfortunately in neither instance are details of the 

 sexual organs given, and after all it is essential that such 

 details should be available in these cases. The large size of 

 the first-mentioned specimen points to a mistake having 

 been made. 



Common Eider in Ireland. — Mr. A. R. Nichols an- 

 nounces {Irish Nat., 1912, p. 20) that an immature female 

 Somateria m. moUissima has been sent to the Dublin Museum 

 by Colonel J, J. Perceval from Wexford Harbour, where it 

 was shot on November 12th, 1912. The Eider is a rare 

 straggler to Ireland, and it will be remembered that it was 

 recorded in our September issue (p. 106) as having bred in 

 that coimtry for the first time in 1912. 



