VOL. rx.] NOTES. 153 



them all along past Winchelsea and one even on the canal 

 near Winchelsea." 



Dr. C. B. Ticehurst writes to the Scottish Naturalist (1915, 

 p. .307) that " during October 1914 numbers of Guillemots 

 and Razorbills were found washed ashore dead and covered 

 with sticky, dark, oilv matter on the south Norfolk and north 

 Suffolk coast." 



Miss E. L. Turner wrote to me from Holy Island that she 

 had seen in January and February, 1915, some Eiders and 

 Common Scoters with their feathers (chiefly those of the breast 

 and flanks) more or less clogged with this oily substance, but 

 only one (an Eider) had been seriously affected by it. 



Several observers give details in the Scottish Naturalist 

 (1915, pp. 282-4) showing that in June 1915 a very large 

 number of sea-birds (Guillemots, Razorbills, Puffins, and Eider 

 Ducks) were found with their plumage clogged with this oily 

 substance at the Isle of May and round the shores of Fife. 

 The Misses Rintoul and Baxter, who found " hundreds of dead 

 Guillemots, lesser numbers of Razorbills and Puffins, and 

 eight or nine adult Eider, and one fluffy duckling," sent two 

 of the Eiders to Professor Sutherland, who reported that the 

 cause of death was starvation. The " oil " appears gradually 

 to clog the feathers to such an extent as to make it impossible 

 for the bird either to fly or dive, and it is thus unable to 

 procure sufficient food to sustain life. 



Lady Erskine, writing of Guillemots, states {loc. cit.) that 

 " those we caught were dark brown all over, and the oil was 

 so thick we could hardly separate one wing-feather from 

 another."' The same observer writes that the rocks were 

 covered with a thick coating of the " oil," which was " like 

 thick chocolate sauce, and six or seven inches deep in some 

 crevices between the smaller rocks." 



It is thus evident that a large number of sea-birds have 

 been made innocent victims as a result of the war under the 

 sea. H.F.W. 



CROSSBILLS BREEDING IN SUFFOLK. 



It has already been recorded in the Field (17/1/14, p. 139) 

 that the Crossbill bred in Suffolk in 1914, but there is a 

 slight error in British Birds (Vol. VII., p. 301), in reference 

 to this record, i.e. the keeper who picked up the young bird 

 mentioned was not the same from whom I received the 

 information, and I do not think my note in the Field conveyed 

 that impression. In addition to the above record I received 

 a very typical clutch of four eggs with the nest taken on 



