148 BRITISH BIRDS. 



of interest to students of the county fauna, but for the benefit 

 of future workers we would appeal to the compiler to append 

 the year to all records, or else to arrange them under separate 

 years. The Report is dated 1910-11, and published in June, 

 1911, so that it is not always easy to decide whether records- 

 relating to " last winter " or specific dates between January 

 and April (with no j^ear appended) refer to 1910 or 1911. 

 We are, however, grateful to Mr. Masefield for tabulating 

 his records in scientific order, and thus rendering them much 

 more convenient for reference. 



Pochards visited Gailey Pools in considerable numbers on 

 March 20th, 1910, no fewer than 250 being observed on that 

 date. The Tufted Duck has increased as a breeding species- 

 at Patshull, where seventeen nests were found in 1910 ; but 

 it shows a marked tendency to become a summer rather than 

 a permanent resident. A Purple Sandpiper is recorded as 

 having been seen in March, 1909, at Chartley. This is a new 

 species to the county list. There are also additional records 

 of the Ruff, Red-throated Diver, and other scarce visitors. 



Mr. W. Wells Bladen's " Bird Notes " (pp. 94-105) are illus- 

 trated by photographs of the nests of Wheatear, Pied Wagtail, 

 and Meadow-Pipit, taken on the slag-heaps of the Potteries, 

 where these birds now breed regularly. At least eight pairs 

 of Wheatears nested in the Shelton slag-heaps, half of the 

 nests being within sixty yards of the place where the molten 

 slag is tipped. Still more remarkable is a note of a pair of 

 Stonechats building in a cinder wall, but unfortunately in 

 this case the nest was deserted subsequently. F.C.R.J. 



