VOL. XIV.] NOTES. 119 



worthy of record. The reservoirs are situated nearly twenty 

 miles to the cast of the Severn valley, and a dozen miles 

 west of tlie Avon. Tlicv are, in fact, on the high ground of 

 the Avon and Trent watershed. 



The first visit I paid was on September 30t]i, IQ19, when 

 1 saw two Green Sand])ipers {'fn'ni^a ochropiis) and a Dunlin 

 [Erolia alpina), besides commoner birds. On October 5th I 

 again saw one Green Sandpij)er. My next visit was on 

 November 21st, when the most interesting bird present was 

 a Slavonian Grebe {Podiccps aurifus), which allowed me to 

 apjiroach near enough for satisfactory identification. On 

 Dtccmber i 5tii I again saw the Green Sandpipers and the 

 Dunlin, which had, 1 supjiose, been in the neighbourhood 

 siuce September 30th. On this occasion, while I was at the 

 upper reservoir, a Sheld-Duck {T. iadorna) arrived and flew 

 round \'ery wildly, settling on the water twice, and then 

 apparently going away again in a southerly direction. 



1 did not see anything exceptional on January 22nd, 

 Fel^ruary 5th, February 25th, or March 19th, 1920, though 

 a single Black-headed (iull (A. ridilnindns) on February 5th 

 may be worth mentioning. This bird passed on northwards 

 while 1 was at the reservoir. 



In .Ai)ril I visited one or both of the reservoirs on the 12th, 

 iSth, 22nd and 29th, and saw two Common Gulls (L. caniis) 

 passing northwards on the last of these dates. On Ma}^ ist 

 my brother, W. B. Alexander, accompanied me to the 

 reservoirs. On the upper reservoir we had excellent views of 

 a party of seven Scoters, three pairs of the common species 

 {Oidemia nigra), and a fine drake Velvet {Oi. fiisca). These 

 birds kept in a l)uuch together, and flew round several times. 

 They did not a])pear to be feeding. On the same day, by 

 liie reservoirs, we saw altogether some twenty Common Sand- 

 j)ipers {T. hypolcucus), and one Kinged Plover {Ch. hiaticula). 

 On a field near by were two W'lieatears, almost certainly 

 Greenland {(E. oe. lencorrhoa), and about a mile from the 

 reservoirs we saw five Lesser Black-l);i.cked Gulls (L. fuscus) 

 circling over the Lickey hills and mo\'ing north-west. 



Three days later all these unusual birds had disappeared, 

 but we had the good fortune to see a beautiful male Pied 

 Flycatcher (,U. //. hypolcuca) by the Birmingham-Worcester 

 Canal, (piite near the reservoirs. 



On May nth a young Common (iull and a young Black- 

 lieaded Gull arrived separately during my stay at the reservoir, 

 and seemed soon to depart agaiu in a north-westerly direction. 

 On ^lay 14th and 20th I saw no passing migrants. 



