NOTES. 281 



February. On March 18th, 1907, however, I was greatly 

 surprised, when at the top of Deepdale on Loch Stenness, 

 to put up a large pack of over two hundred Golden- eye, of 

 which every bird, so far as I could see, was an adult clrake. 

 They were naturally extremely wild, and presented a magni- 

 ficent sight as they wheeled and came down wind. 



H. W. Robinson. 



DRAKE SMEW IN CHESHIRE. 

 On January 27th, 1912, Mr. T. Hadfield, Mr. T. Baddeley 

 and I watched an adult drake Smew [Mergus alhellus) at close- 

 quarters on Mar bury Mere, near Northwich. When we first 

 noticed the bird it was flying with two brown-headed 

 Goosanders, but it soon left them and swam by itself, diving 

 repeatedly. The Goosanders had been on the water for at 

 least a week, but the Smew was not with them when I visited 

 the mere on the 23rd. The bird looked very white ; the 

 black on the wings and back was almost concealed when it 

 was swimming, but conspicuous when on the wing or when 

 it raised itself in the water, as it frequently did, to flap its 

 wings. We were struck by the two crescentic black bands 

 over the shoulders and in front of the wings ; they showed 

 as two narrow, regular, curved lines. 



The bird was on the water on the 28th, but on the 29th 

 the mere was frozen over and it was not visible. 



It returned during the thaw ; I saw it on February 10th, 

 and it was still there on the 18th. 



Brown- headed SmcAvs occur occasionally inland in Cheshire, 

 but old drakes are seldom seen. Mr. C. Oldham saw a brown - 

 headed bird on Radnor Mere, Alderley, on December 24th, 1911. 



T. A. Coward. 



LITTLE BUSTARDS IN NORFOLK AND SCOTLAND. 



On January 4th, 1912, a Little Bustard [Otis tetrax) was shot 

 on a wet marsh at Strumshaw, near Norwich, by Mr. A. Mason. 

 This species is always a rare bird, but when it does occur in 

 the eastern counties, as often as not it is in mid- winter. 

 Probably it is from Russia that most of our examples come, 

 for in mid- winter we hardly look for migrants from countries 

 south of us, such as Algeria and Spain, to visit England. 



Another was shot in Kincardineshire on January 1st, after 

 frequenting a certain field for a fortnight [Scottish Naturalist, 

 1912, p. 44). J. H. GuRNEY. 



BLUE EGGS AMONG THE WADERS. 

 Though lack of pigmentation in the shell no doubt generally 

 bespeaks a morbid condition in the reproductive system. 



