VOL. X.] NOTES. 123 



group of thirty-five to forty Buffel-headed Ducks with sexes 

 about equally divided as follows : — 



" Suddenly a male swims vigorously at another with flapping wings, 

 making the water boil, and soon each male is ardently courting. He 

 spreads and cocks his tail, puffs out the feathers of his head and 

 cheeks, extends his bill straight out in front close to the water and 

 every now and then thi'ows it back with a bob in a sort of reversed 

 bow. All the time he swims rapidly, and, whereas in feeding the 

 group were all swimming the some way in an orderly manner, th<> 

 drakes are now nervously swimming liack and forth, and in and out 

 through the crowd. Every now and then there is a commotion in 

 the water as one or more drakes dive with a splashing of water only 

 to come up again in pursuit or retreat. As the excitement grows a 

 drake flaps his wings frequently and then jumps from the water and 

 flies low with outstretched neck towards a duck who has listlessly 

 strayed from the group. He alights beside her precipitately, aliding 

 along on his tail, his breast and head elevated to their utmost extent 

 and held erect. He bobs nervously. And so it goes." 



Increase of Fulmar Petrel est co. Kerry. — Mi-. C. B. 

 Moffat states [Irish Nat., 1916, p. 156) that Mrs. Barrington 

 informs him that Mr. MacGinley the lightkeeper at the 

 Skelligs reported in April 1916 a still further increase in 

 Fulmarus g. glacialis at the Great Skellig. The colony 

 started in 1913 with eleven or twelve pairs, in 1914 there 

 were about seventy birds, and in 1915 about one hundred. 

 Now Mr. MacGinley writes : '' There are now three colonies 

 of birds nesting, and if with each successive season they keep 

 on increasing as they have been doing since they first visited 

 the Skelligs, they will soon be as numerous as the Gannets." 



Erratum.— 4 w/«a p. 97, line 26, for " glow-worm " read " slow-worm." 



LETTERS. 



BREEDING-HABITS OF SPARROW-HAWK. 

 To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — With reference to Mr. Owen's account of the male Sparrow- 

 Hawk giving food to the female when on the wing (antea, p. 56), it 

 may interest you to know that for several consecuti\e years Sparrow- 

 Hawks nested in a wood at Metcalfe Park, and I used to watch the 

 parents bringing food to the nestlings. At first the male brought it, 

 and, as Mr. Owen describes, it was taken from him by the female, and 

 ia several instances I have seen the prey dropped by him and caught 

 in the air by the second bird and conveyed to the nest. Later on, 

 when the young were strong on the wing, both parents brought food, 

 and when close to the nest the young would come out to meet them 

 and the old birds in each instance let fall the prey, which was caught 

 by the young whilst m the air ; in no case did it fall very far, and I 

 never saw the latter fail to catch it. I always considered that this was 



