NOTES. 85 



Marsh-Harrier in Kent. — Mr. Collingwood Ingram 

 announces {ZooL, 1911, p. 279) that he saw a specimen of 

 Circus ceruginosus in Thanet on June 22nd, 1911. 



Honey-Buzzard's Nest in Durham. — Mr. 0. V. Aplin 

 states {ZooL, 1911, p. 237) that Mr. Isaac Clark has given him 

 particulars of a nest of Pernis apivorus built in some beech- 

 woods on the banks of the Derwent in 1899. The nest 

 contained two young, early in August of that year. Mr. ApHn 

 acknowledges the assistance of Mr. Heatley Noble in tracing 

 this record. The only other recent instance of the breecHng 

 of this bird in Great Britain, appears to have been in Here- 

 fordshire in 1895, as recorded by Mr. W. E. de Winton 

 {Zool, 1895, p. 383). 



OsPREY IN Renfrewshire. — Mr. T. Malloch reports 

 {ZooL, 1911, p. 237) that he found a male Osprey {Pandion 

 haliaHus) lying dead with the head destroyed, in a glen in 

 north-west Renfrewshire, on May 19th, 1911. The bird 

 had been dead some time. 



WiGEON Breeding in Argyllshire. — Mr. C. H. Alston 

 records the finding and satisfactory identification of a nest 

 of Mareca penelope on an island of Loch Awe in May, 1911, 

 and a note by Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown informs us that Mr. 

 W. Evans has known of Wigeon breeding in the Loch Awe 

 district about ten years ago and in 1906, while a nest was 

 also found in 1908 by the Misses Baxter and Rintoul {Ann. 

 Scot. Nat. Hist., 1911, p. 183). It is therefore fairly certain 

 that the Wigeon has been a regular nester in this district 

 for some time. 



Courtship of the Red-breasted Merganser. — Dr. 

 C. W. Townsend describes in the Auk (1911, pp. 341-45) 

 the " nuptial performance " of Mergus serrator, as observed 

 in New England (U.S.A.). "The drake begins," he writes, 

 " by stretching up his long neck so that the white ring is 

 much broadened, and the metallic green head, with its long 

 crest and its narrow, red bill, makes a conspicuous object. 

 At once the bill is opened wide and the whole bird stiffly bobs 

 or teters [sic] as if on a pivot, in such a way that the breast 

 and the lower part of the neck are immersed, while the tail 

 and posterior part of the body swing upward. This motion 

 brings the neck and head from a vertical position to an angle 

 of forty-five degrees. All the motions are stiffly executed, 

 and suggest a formal but ungraceful courtesy." Dr. Townsend 



