VOL. XIII.] NOTES. 6'i 



seems red at a distance, but is composed of three rings, the 

 outer hazel, the middle dusky, the inner bright red." In a 

 Hving one which I examined on May 25th, 1918, the iris was 

 not noticeably narrow ; round the pupil was a very narrow 

 line of pale yellow, then came a rather wider ring of black, 

 which merged into the rich crimson of the rest of the iris. 



Black-necked Grebe {Podiceps nigncollis). 5 Winder- 

 mere, January 8th, 1918 (see British Birds, XII., p. 22.) 

 Iris : Bright pinkish-orange, with a white hair-line round the 

 pupil. Eyelids : brownish-orange ; lores, dusky. Bill : blue- 

 grey, shading to pale flesh on the basal third ; the upper 

 mandible is very narrowly margined with blackish and has a 

 streak of the same colour along the ridge, extending to just 

 below the nostril at the base. Feet : tarsi, blue-green ; 

 toes, slate-grey, darker at the edges of the lobes, and fading 

 to pale pinkish-yellow at the base of the second and third 

 digits, which have a piece of wrinkled olive-green skin between 

 them. Back of foot black, tinged with greenish on the tarsus. 



The following note was given me by my brother, D. G. 

 Garnett : Great Northern Diver {Colymhiis immer). In. 

 an immature male, shot on Windermere, January 1917, the 

 light parts of the webs of the feet were a deep salmon-pink 

 while the bird was alive, but faded to whitish very soon after 

 death. The pink colour in the living bird is, of course, due 

 to blood circulating through the capillaries of an unpigmented 

 area ; the blood, at death, accumulates in the big veins, and 

 consequently the part becomes colourless. 



Marjory Garnett. 



Early Arrival of Garden-Warbler and Wryneck. — 

 Mr. H. D. Astley states that he saw a Garden-Warbler {Sylvia 

 borin) at Brinsop Court, Hereford, on March 31st and Mr. 

 J. H. Crow records a Wryneck {Jynx torqtiilla) near Newbury, 

 Berks, on February 28th, 1919 [Field, April 12th, 1919. 

 P-445)- 



Great Crested Grebe as a Breeding Bird in Scotland. 

 — Mr. W.Evans summarizes (Sco/^. Nat., igig, pp. 49-50), the 

 nesting records of Podiceps c. cristatus, showing how the bird 

 has spread as a breeding species in Forth during the last 20-30 

 years. But Mr. Evans is inclined to doubt if there are as m^any 

 breeding in the area now as there were ten years ago, and in 

 anv case it would appear that the increase has been checked. 



In the same journal (pp. 67-77) ^^e Misses E. V. Baxter and 

 L. J. Rintoul publish a very interesting and useful study of the 

 extension of the breeding range of this bird in Scotland, which 



