24 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. x. 



from confinement, but these birds showed no evidence of 

 having been in captivity, and inquiry at the only place in 

 the cotmty where birds of this species were known to be 

 kept, showed that the owner had not lost any. Their 

 stomachs, I may say, were empty, so that no clue could be 

 obtained from that source. There seem, therefore, reasonable 

 grounds for supposing that these birds may have been 

 genuine A\ild visitants to the county. J. Wiglesworth. 



POCHARD BREEDING IN NORTH WALES. 



In reference to Mr. H. E. Forrest's note in the last number 

 of British Birds (Vol. IX., p. 320), may I be allowed to draw 

 his attention, and that of any other interested readers, to the 

 fact that in my Wild Life in Wales (p. 41) I mentioned that 

 a pair or two of both Pochards and Tufted Ducks bred on 

 Bala Lake in 1906, and that on June 8th, 1905, 1 saw a female 

 Pochard on the lake accompanied by her brood, then only 

 a day or two old. George Bolam. 



HOODED MERGANSERS IN MERIONETH. 

 Recently when on a visit to Birmingham I went through 

 the natural history museum, and amongst Mr. Chase's loan 

 collection of birds I noticed a case containing two Hooded 

 Mergansers — a beautiful adult male and an immature bird. 

 According to the label they were obtained in North Wales. 

 I wrote to Mr. Chase for details and he replied as follows : 

 " The Hooded Mergansers were presented to me in 1882 by 

 the Rev. Walter Earle, of Yarlet Hall, near Stafford. He 

 informed me by letter that they were shot near Barmouth 

 by a former pupil of his. Sir William Claji:on, by a clever 

 right and left. These birds are mentioned by Dresser in 

 the Supplement to his Birds of Europe, Vol. IX., page 296. 

 In my opinion the birds are an adult male and immature 

 male." Although recorded bj' Dresser, the above seem to 

 have been overlooked by Howard Saunders and later writers 

 on British birds. H. E. Forrest. 



GREENSHANK AND BLACK TERN IN BERKSHIRE. 

 On May 6th, 1916, I saw and heard a Greenshank {Tringo 

 nehnlaria) in a flooded meadow near Aldermaston, Berks. 

 This bird does not appear to have been recorded from 

 Berkshire for many years. On passing a flooded meadow 

 at the side of the Bath road, near Theale, on May 9th and 

 10th, I noticed a Black Tern {Hydrorhelidoii n. nigra) hawking 

 over the water and picking up insects from the surface. 



Norman H. Joy. 



