NOTES. 193 



it is a very nnusual habit in Devon, and he reports a case of 

 a Blackbird nesting for three years in succession on the 

 ground in the same chimp of nettles and for a fourth year 

 in another clump of nettles in the same field near Topsham, 

 Devon, and a Song-Thrush nesting on the ground in a large 

 bed of nettles, as the only instances that have occurred to him. 



Flocking of the Red-breasted Merganser in Autumn. — 

 Major H. Trevelyan contributes a further note on this subject 

 to the Field, September 3rd, 1910. [Cf. Br. Birds, Vol. III., 

 p. 167.) He saw a pack of about fifty young Mergansers on 

 August 22nd on a large inland lake in Ireland, which Avere 

 unable to fly, but too wild to allow of close approach. An 

 hour later, on the same water, he found two small parties of 

 young birds, and about a mile away another large pack of 

 about one hundred flappers. According to local information 

 this packing often takes place in August, but does not become 

 general till September, and as many as two hundred young 

 are said to have been seen in a flock, Avith one adult female 

 as leader. Major Trevelyan writes us that his boatman tells 

 him that he saw about three hundred young AAdth, so far as 

 he could tell, only one adult on September 25th, 1910. In 

 former years, when Mergansers bred more plentifully than now, 

 as many as five hundred to a thousand young are said to have 

 been seen together in a pack, accompanied apparently by 

 only one old bird. Attempts were made by those interested 

 in the fishing to reduce their numbers by driving them into a 

 net stretched across an opening between the mainland and an 

 island, but with only partial success. 



The Boundary of Staffordshire and Warwickshire. 

 — Mr. J. R. B. Masefield informs us that Harborne was 

 formerly part of Staffordshire, and on investigation we find 

 that it was transferred to Warwick by the Provisional Local 

 Government Board Act of 1891, so that at the time it was 

 found the specimen of the Razorbill {Alca torda) referred 

 to (antea, p. 112) was actually in Staffordshire ! As, however, 

 the bird was not recorded till 1910, nineteen years later, it 

 seems better to adhere to the present boundaries so as to 

 avoid unnecessary duplication of records. — F. C.R.J, and 

 H.F.W. 



