202 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vii. 



peculiar to tJie birds frequenting these clear waters, where 

 refuse is visible at a considerable distance under the surface. 

 Mr. W. RadcUffe Saunders states in the Field of November 

 14th, 1908, that he witnessed the same performance on the 

 part of Kittiwakes, Black-headed Gulls, and immature 

 Herring-Gulls at Torquay, but with this exception, I have 

 not seen this habit previously recorded, at least as regards 

 Herring-Gulls. S. G. Cummings. 



PECULIAR NESTING-SITE OF BLACK 



GUILLEMOTS. 



During the last two nesting-seasons Black Guillemots [Uria 

 grylle) have taken to the much-frequented pierfe of Bangor 

 and Ballywalter both in the county of Down, for their 

 nesting operations. In the Whig for September 20th and 27th 

 a correspondent gives a clear description of these birds 

 which nested at Bangor Pier, and my friend Mr. Hughes of 

 Ballywalter, a most careful observer, gave me a full description 

 of this species, and tells me it has nested between the stones 

 of the Ballywalter Pier for the last two years and probably 

 longer. 



His description ^^as so good that there was no mistaking 

 the bird, but to make doubly sure I showed him a good 

 coloured plate, which of course he easily recognized. I am 

 glad to say the Coastguards protect these birds which are 

 now pretty tame, and it is quite easy to get within a cou^^le 

 of yards of them as they sit on the pier-wall. 



It is a most extraordinary thing that such wild birds as 

 these should nest in such frequented places. The only way 

 I can account for it is that their old breeding-haunts in 

 Rathlin, mentioned by Thompson in his Natural History 

 of Ireland, should have got congested. The birds having 

 flown over to the co. Down shore to look for a site, and 

 finding no rocky crevices to make their nest in such as at 

 Rathlin, and perhaps not having time to go on a longer 

 hunt, took to the above-mentioned piers as the best substitute 

 for the cliffs with their rock-strewn bases. These, with 

 rough rocky islands, have always been, to me at any rate, 

 connected with the nesting of this species amongst the 

 northern islands of the west coast of Scotland. 



W. H. Workman. 



CAROLINA CRAKE IN OUTER HEBRIDES. 



An immature male Carolina Crake {Porzana Carolina) was 

 shot by Mr. A. Blain (Galson Lodge, Stornoway), near 



