NOTES. 265 



PINTAIL IN SUSSEX IN AUGUST. 

 While shooting at the decoy-pond in the parish of Pease- 

 marsh in east Sussex on August 28th, 1909, one of the guns 

 shot a Pintail (Dafila acuta). On examination I found it to 

 be an adult drake in almost full eclipse plumage. 



The Pintail is one of the least common of the surface- 

 feeding ducks in east Sussex, and is most usually obtained in 

 hard weather in winter, though I have seen examples on the 

 spring migration so late as April 21st in the adjoining parts 

 of Romney Marsh, and others have been recorded so late as 

 May 17th. 



N. F. Ticehurst. 



LONG-TAILED DUCK IN MERIONETH. 



On December 13th, 1909, an immature female Long- 

 tailed Duck (Harelda glacialis), shot at Towyn, was brought 

 to me for identification. As stated in my " Vertebrate 

 Fauna of North Wales " the Long-tailed Duck has been 

 obtained several times on the estuaries at Portmadoc, and 

 once or twice on the Mawddach and Dovey estuaries, but the 

 present example is the first recorded on the Dysynni estuary. 



H. E. Forrest. 



VELVET-SCOTERS ON THE NORTH COAST OF 

 WALES. 

 As there appear to be only two records of the occurrence of 

 the Velvet-Scoter (CEdemiafusca) on the North Coast of Wales 

 (c/. Forrest's Vertebrate Fauna of North Wales, p. 293) I 

 think it is worth recording that I watched four examples of 

 this bird in Llandudno Bay on November 30th, 1909. They 

 were perhaps a quarter of a mile from me, but with my 

 binoculars and the direct light of the sun I saw them to 

 advantage. The white bar on each wing and the white 

 patches about their eyes could be distinctly seen, but from 

 the colour of their plumage — dark brown, with the exception 

 of their breasts which were dull white — it is evident that they 

 were either female or immature birds. They dived repeatedly 

 and were not consorting with the more abundant Common 

 Scoter. R. W. Jones. 



FEMALE BLACK GROUSE ASSUMING MALE 

 PLUMAGE. 



Amongst game-birds, examples of females exhibiting the 

 plumage of the males in varying degree are not rare in 



