414 BRITISH BIRDS. 



few such feathers. The accompanying photographs of a 

 few of the young Cuckoos I have mentioned will perhaps, 

 make my meaning clearer. Fig. 1, with two white spots ; 

 Fig. 2, with a conspicuous spot on the forehead and two 

 smaller spots at the back of the head ; Fig. 3, with a few 

 whitish feathers on the head and throat. Frances Pitt 



GARGANEY AND OTHER DUCKS IN CHESHIRE. 

 On April 9th, 1910, Mr. Travers Hadfield and I had an 

 excellent view of five Garganeys (Querquedula circia), two 

 of which were drakes, on the mere at Marbury near Northwich. 

 We first noticed the birds on the wing, when the greyish- 

 white pattern on the wings of the drakes, formed by the blue- 

 grey coverts and white bars, attracted our attention. Later, 

 sheltered by a duck-shooter's reed-screen, we succeeded in 

 getting within ten yards of the birds when they were feeding 

 near the edge of the mere. The drakes repeatedly uttered 

 the curious clicking breeding note, which is likened by Saunders 

 to the sound made by a child's rattle. The general colour of 

 the breast of the drake Garganey is variously described as 

 brown, pale brown, dark brown, sandy-buff, pale chestnut, 

 wood-brown, and pale yellowish-brown in descriptions I have 

 consulted, but we were particularly struck by its vinaceous 

 tinge ; Montagu speaks of the " purplish " neck, but this 

 tinge is, in some lights, noticeable on the breast. The 

 Garganey, though it has been obtained occasionally on the 

 Dee Estuary, has not to my knowledge been previously 

 observed on inland waters in Cheshire. 



On the 9th, beyond a few Mallards, Pochards and Tufted 

 Ducks, there were no other ducks on Marbury, but on the 

 10th, when Mr. A. W. Boyd visited the mere to see the 

 Garganeys, he found four Wigeon, ten or more Shovelers, 

 a Sheld-Duck, and over thirty Teal. ip ^ Coward 



COMMON SCOTER AND OTHER DUCKS IN HERT- 

 FORDSHIRE AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 



On the morning of April 10th, 1910, there was a bunch of ten 

 Common Scoters ((Edemia nigra), comprising seven adult drakes 

 and three grey-cheeked birds, on one of the reservoirs at Tring 

 (Herts.). Five more — three of them adult drakes — were on 

 another reservoir, and at Weston Turville (Bucks.), some four 

 miles away, there were eleven, seven adult drakes and four 

 grey-cheeked birds. One may perhaps expect to see Common 

 Scoters, on passage, on our inland waters in April — I saw 



