VOL. xiTL] NOTES. 61 



on Thornton Reservoir, Leicestershire, in February 1918. In 

 its gullet were several perch and a trout. Only about half 

 a dozen of the previous records for the county are at all 

 definite. W. H. Barrow. 



DOTTEREL IN CO. DUBLIN. 



Ox April 27th, 1919, while the north-easterly blizzard, which 

 appears to have swept over the greater part of the British 

 Isles, was raging, I identified three Dotterels {Charadrius 

 morinellus), at Kilbarrack, co. Dublin. They were in a field of 

 young wheat about 200 yards from the sea. On examining 

 the birds through a pair of binoculars, two were seen to be 

 adults in full breeding plumage. The other I considered was 

 an immature bird, as it had none of the bright colouring on 

 the under-parts, nor did it show any dark brown on the crown. 

 The white eye-stripe, however, was clearly defined, and quite 

 as prominent as in the adult birds, but the white crescent 

 across the upper-breast was indistinct. When moving on the 

 ground these birds reminded me of the Ringed Plover, dis- 

 playing the same habit of running rapidly for two or three 

 yards, with lowered head, stopping suddenly, and repeating 

 the movement after a few moments' interval. 



This, the fifteenth record of the Dotterel in Ireland, is 

 particularly interesting, as it is the first known visit of the 

 species to co. Dublin, and the second occasion on which it 

 has occurred in Ireland during the month of April. 



Geo. R. Humphreys. 



GREENSHANK IN WARWICKSHIRE. 



As the Greenshank {Tringa nehularia) is an uncommon visitor 

 to Warwickshire, it is, I think, worth recording that I saw 

 one in Sutton Park on April 13th and 14th, 1919. 



B. A. Carter. 



SHIFTING OF BREEDING-GROUNDS BY TERNS. 



Accumulating evidence shows that in North Wales all the 

 species of Tern that breed in the district are prone to shift 

 their nesting ground from year to year. Details will be given 

 in the forthcoming Supplement to my " Vertebrate Fauna 

 of North Wales," but I will give here just one striking 

 example. At Point of Air, near Prestatyn, a colony of Lesser 

 Terns {Sterna a. albifrons) have been known to breed ever 

 since 1866, when they were recorded by H. Ecroyd Smith. 

 No other species was noted there until 1910, when Mr. R. D. 

 Roberts found two pairs of Common Terns (5. hirundo) 



