88 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xv. 



to see all the details of its plumage with the naked eye. It had 

 a definitely blue-grey head, and its breast appeared to be 

 clearly barred, and as it sat there its yellow feet were possibly 

 its most noticeable feature. A little later it flew off to a group 

 of large beeches not far away, and I failed to see it again ; 

 in flight its tail looked particularly long. Very possibly it was 

 nesting in the neighbourhood, which is well wooded — within 

 a score of miles of its old New Forest haunts. 



A. W. Boyd. 



HERON SOARING AND " LOOPING THE LOOP." 



On Maj^ 22nd, a hot, fine day with a moderate N.E. wind, 

 I watched a Heron {Ardea c. cinerea) rise from a marsh in 

 the parish of Lawford, Essex. He rose in a spiral, flapping 

 his wings on the down-wind side and without movement of 

 them on the up- wind side till he had attained a considerable 

 height, possibly 1,000 feet. Then, without any other per- 

 ceptible movement of his wings, he went up and up till he 

 was a mere speck. He twice deliberately looped the loop, 

 forwards, in this last part of his ascent, and finally went off 

 straight up-wind without any flapping and without any 

 apparent descent till out of sight. W. B. Nichols. 



BITTERN IN ANGLESEY. 



On March 26th, 192 1, by a west Anglesey llyn, I saw a 

 Bittern [Botatirus s. stellaris) flying over a reed-bed ; it 

 dropped down to some flattened reeds, where J watched it 

 walking about for a time ; it was then startled, and, standing 

 with its neck and bill pointing upwards in a straight line, it 

 faded from sight among the reeds. 



I intended to visit the locality again, as this was a fairly late 

 date for its occurrence there, but was prevented from doing so, 

 and consequently am unable to give the length of its stay. 



A. W. Boyd. 



NOTES ON THE BEAN-GOOSE IN AYRSHIRE. 



As one so often hears of geese recorded in a general way as 

 simply " Grey Geese " or " Black Geese," it will be of interest, 

 perhaps, to record the regular winter visitation of the Bean- 

 Goose {A. fabalis) to my own vicinity, Fen wick. There 

 are usually two distinct packs — one of between thirty and 

 forty, and one small one of a dozen or so. The largest flock I 

 ever saw here was eighty and that was on 14th October, 1919. 

 The date of arrival is earlier than supposed, usually it is 

 about the middle of September; in 1915 it was on the i8th 



