VOL. X.] NOTES. 67 



DIVING OF THE PINTAIL IN CAPTIVITY. 



My note on the diving of the Wigeon (Vol. IX., p. 301), and 

 Mr. Abel Chapman's connnent thereon (Vol. X., pp. 22-2.3), 

 leads nie to add a note on the diving of the Pintail, another 

 surface-feeding duck which certainly does not dive in ordinary 

 circumstances. 



On my pond 1 have had, for rather more than two 

 years, a fine pair of pinioned Pintails, which have been from 

 the first remarkably tame and healthy. I had never seen 

 either of the pair diving xmtil the morning of 24th April last, 

 when I watched the male engaged in diving vigorously at 

 a spot where the water is, I estimate, between three and four 

 feet deep. After I had caught sight of him so engaged, I 

 saw him dive twelve or fifteen times, going under on each 

 occasion quite naturally and expertly, always at the same 

 spot, and reiuaining below the surface from eight to ten 

 seconds. 1 tiined him by watch. Between each immersion 

 he remained on the surface for a few seconds, apparently 

 looking downwards and considering matters. After that, 

 dowii he went almost suddenly. I could see by the swirl 

 on the surface of the water that, while he was below, he was 

 moving about vigorously ; and he often came up fom" or 

 five feet from where he went down. In the afternoon I saw 

 him diving again at the same spot ; but he did not go under 

 so many times or remain under so long on each occasion. 

 He dived thus, no doubt, to reach something which had 

 sunk to the bottom at the spot in question ; but I cannot 

 imagine what it may have been. 



No doubt, as Mi*. Abel Chapman remarks, this habit of 

 diving, so unusual in the species, was one result of living a 

 more or less abnormal life in captivity. Miller Christy. 



COMMON SCOTER IN SHROPSHIRE IN SUMMER. 



An immature example of the Common Scoter (Oidemia n. 

 nigra) was obtained on Betton Pool, near Shrewsbury, 

 about the middle of June. 1916. This duck is an irregular 

 winter visitor to Shropshire, flocks numbering as many as 

 twenty having been recorded at that season, but I have 

 never before known it to occur in summer. H. E. Forrest. 



ON THE STATUS OF THE COMMON CURLEW AND 

 THE BLACK GROUSE IN WILTSHIRE. 



I. The Common Curlew. 



I AJNi glad to be able to state that the wish expressed in the 

 la&t paragraph of niy nptg on the Common Curlew {vide 



