VOL. IX.] NOTES. 215 



Parrot-CrosshiJl mentioned as killed in Weniyss Bay in 

 1862 should be critically examined. There are few records 

 of the Jay during the past half-century. Seven eggs found 

 in June, 1904, in a decayed fir near Darnley Rifle Range 

 were first identified as those of the Wryneck, but two of 

 these eggs now in the Royal Scottish Museum are now stated 

 to be those of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. The original 

 record (Ann. Scot. N. H., 1905, p. 244), it should be noted, 

 w^as not deemed altogether satisfactory, presumably because 

 the author did not himself see the eggs in situ, and it is still 

 kept within square brackets in the present list. A second 

 Renfrew record for the American Haivk-Oui (Greenock, 

 December, 1871) has, we fancy, been discredited. A sudden 

 diminution in the numbers of Corn,-Crakes in the county 

 in 1905, and a gradual revival up to 1914, when a further 

 diminution was noted, are interesting facts. 



Overlooked Record of Surf-Scoter m Yorkshire. — 

 Mr. W. J. Clarke writes (Nat., 1915, p. 339) : " While hunting 

 through some old records of the Scarborough Philosophical 

 and Archaeological Society, I came across the minutes of a 

 meeting held in the Museum on November 16th, 1855, in 

 which it is recorded that a Surf-Scoter, Avhich had been shot 

 at Filey, was exhibited by Mr. Roberts." Mr. Clarke states 

 that the late Alfred Roberts was at that time Curator of 

 the Scarborough Museum and was well known as a careful 

 and painstaking observer and reliable ornithologist, but we 

 may add that he made curious mistakes at times, e.g. in the 

 Zool. for 1885 he records the " American Scaup [Fuligula 

 maritoides [sicj) " from Scarborough, but according to the 

 authors of the Birds of Yorkshire (II. p. 465) the bird proved 

 on examination by John Hancock to be a female Pochard. It 

 is also significant that a supposed Surf-Scoter recorded as shot 

 at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, on November 25, 1860 

 {Zool. 1860, p. 7274, and 1861, p. 7385), turned out to be a 

 Velvet-Scoter {Birds of Yorkshire, II., p. 482). 



Black-winged Stilt in Devon. — ^j\Ir. F. B. Hinchliff 

 notes {Field, 20.xi.'15) that he saw a Black-v/inged Stilt 

 {Himantopns himantopus) , on November 6th, 1915, in North 

 Devon. He gives an accurate description of the bird and 

 its characteristic flight ; he flushed it four times and had 

 clear views of it. 



