120 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xiv. 



It sliould be noted, I tliink, that I liave never spent more 

 than an lionr at tlie upper reservoir, where almost all the 

 birds here recorded have been seen ; and one or two of my 

 visits have been of much shorter duration. So that, unless 

 I have been peculiarly fortunate, the number of Gulls, at any 

 rate, that pay hurried visits to the reservoirs on migration 

 in spring must be quite considerable. Owing to the lieax^y 

 rains during the spring the reservoirs were very full, so that 

 there was little ground s^iitable for waders. Common 

 Sandpipers probably nest by the reservoirs every year, and 

 Ringed Plovers, I understand, have been known to do so ; 

 but this year the only bird of the latter species that I saw 

 was the one already noted on May ist. 



It may be worth adding that the immediate vicinity of the 

 reservoirs serves to attract early passing migrants : my first 

 Redstart {Ph. ph. phcenicnnts), Wliitethroat (5. c. commimis), 

 Whinchat (.S. r. ruhetra), and Sedge-Warbler {A. schcenobcvniis) 

 of the season were all in the hedges or bushes round their 

 sides ; and, of course, Hirundines arrived at the reservoirs 

 weeks before they appeared at their breeding-places. 



These leservoirs have been visited in past years by seveial 

 ornithologists, but I cannot hear of previous records of 

 Green Sandpiper, Slavonian Grebe, Sheld-Duck, or either of 

 the Scoters. H. G. Alexander. 



Common Buzzard in Sussex. — Prof. Kennedy Orton 

 writes that he saw a Buleo b. buteo, a male by its size and 

 probably adult, near Seaford, on February 25th, 26th and 

 28th, and March 8th and again on the 12th, near Lewes. 



Wood-Pigeon's Nest with Three Eggs. — Mr. G. T. 

 Atchison writes that on September 4th, 1920, he found a 

 nest of C. p. palumhits near Sharperton, Northumberland, 

 containing three fertile, partly incubated eggs. These were 

 all sHghtly smaller than the average, and identical in size 

 and sliape, and so doubtless the product of one hen. The 

 bird was sitting when the nest was found. 



Sandwich Tern Breeding in co. Galway. — W^ith 

 reference to the note on this subject (Vol. XI., p. 142), Lt. H. B. 

 Cobb informs us that at least four pairs of Sterna s. sand- 

 vicensis bred on Mutton Island in 1920. He found two nests 

 himself on May 19th, and was shown an egg from a third a 

 fortniglit later, a fourth nest being subsequently found. 



