256 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Mr. Collinge concludes that we have too many Rooks and 

 that their numbers should be reduced and kept in check. 



Great Spotted Woodpeckers in Scotland. — Mr. J. 

 Paterson saw a specimen of Dendrocopus major on April 17th, 

 1910, near Glasgow, where he had previously seen borings 

 of Woodpeckers. The same writer states that a bird of this 

 species was identified on January 25th, 1910, in the Girvan 

 Valley, Ayrshire {Glasgoiv Nat., Vol. II., p. 142). Mr. J. A. 

 Harvie-Bro\A'n states that the bird has been lieard " this 

 season " at Dunipace, Stirlingshire {Ann. S.N.H., 1910, 

 p. 249). Mr. J. G. Millais informs me {in litt.) that he saw 

 one near Dunkeld, Perthshire, on August 20th, 1910. — H.F.W\ 



Nestestg of the Gad wall and Wigeon en " Forth." — 

 Mr. W. Evans {Ann. S.N.H., 1910, p. 249) records that he 

 found on June 14th, 1910, a nest with ten eggs of Anas strepera 

 at a loch in south-east Scotland, wliere he had suspected 

 them of breeding in 1908 (c/. antea, Vol. II., p. 245). This 

 is at the same loch as the nests found by the Misses Rintoul 

 and Baxter in 1909 (Vol. III., p. ISi). Mr. Evans also 

 records that there were at least half-a-dozen pairs of Mareca 

 penelope breeding on this loch in 1910. 



The American Wigeon recorded from Anglesey. — With 

 reference to Mr. C. Oldham's note (a?i^ea, p. 87) on an American 

 Wigeon which he saw in Anglesey in June, 1910, the pro- 

 bability of its having been an " escape " was not at the time 

 taken into serious consideration. I have recently lieard from 

 the Duchess of Bedford that American Wigeon breed every 

 year at Woburn and that the young can go where they like. 

 Under these circumstances I do not think, and Mr. Oldham 

 agrees with me, that we can regard the Anglesey record as 

 referring to an undoubted wild bird, I had thought that the 

 bird might have escaped from Netherby, but Sir Richard 

 Graham writes me that he has no full-winged American 

 Wigeon.— H.F.W. 



Sociable Plovers in Sussex. — At the November meeting 

 of the British Ornithologists' Club, Mr. A. F. Griffith exhibited 

 a male and female example of Chettusia gregaria, which had 

 been obtained with two others between Rye and Winchelsea 

 between May 25th and 27th, 1910. These two specimens had 

 been presented to the Booth Museum, Brighton, by Messrs. 

 J. E. Hall and E. Robinson, and they had been examined in 

 the flesh by Mr. R. Butterfield and Mr. L. C. Edwards. The 

 two others shot at the same time are in the collection of 

 Mr. J. B. Nichols. A fifth is said to have escaped (c/. Bull. 

 B.O.C., Vol. XXVII., p. 28). 



