104 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. viii. 



Mealy Redpolls m Staffordshire. — In his report on 

 birds in Staffordshire for 1913 {N. Staffs. Field Club, Report 

 1913-14), Mr. J. R. B. Masefield states that tliree examples 

 of Carduelis I. linaria were captured near Longton, in 

 December, 1913. This appears to be the first really- 

 authentic record of the occurrence of the bird in the 

 county. 



Willow-Tit Nesting in Renfrew. — Mr. T. Thornton 

 MacKeith records {Scot. Nat., 1914, p. 164) the finding of 

 a nest with young of Parus a. kleinschmidti on June 6th, 

 1914, in Renfrewshire. It was in a rotten stump and 

 " was lined with wool." The hole had been excavated by 

 the birds themselves. 



Garganey Breeding in Kent. — ^At the meeting of the 

 British Ornithologists' Club held on June 10th, 1914, 

 Mr. E. G. B. Meade- Waldo exliibited the down and breast- 

 feathers from the nest of a Garganey {Anas querquedula) 

 found on the banks of the Eden, near Hever, Kent, on 

 May 27th, 1914 {Bull. B.O.C., Vol. XXXIII., p. 142). The 

 nest had contained eight eggs, that had just hatched, and 

 the duck and her young ones were afterwards seen. From 

 Mr. Meade-Waldo's remarks it would appear that the 

 Garganey is, and has been for some time, at any rate an 

 occasional (if not regular) summer resident in that district 

 of Kent, though the actual fact of its breeding had not 

 hitherto been proved. This is only the third (published) 

 record of the nest of this species having been found in 

 Kent, and the first from the interior of the county, and 

 thus marks a considerable extension of its known breeding- 

 range. 



Possible Breeding of Tufted-Duck and Pochard in 

 NoRTHANTS. — Mr. 0. V. Aplin saw tliree pairs of Nyroca 

 juligula and one pair of N. J. ferina on the lakes at Fawsley 

 Park on May 1 1th, 1914, and thinks they may have been 

 breeding or intending to breed there {Zool. 1914, p. 238). 

 It should, however, be remembered that the Tufted-Duck is 

 a very late breeder, so that the evidence is far from conclusive 

 in this case. The Pochard has also been suspected of breeding 

 at Byfield Reservoir, but we beheve that neither species 

 has yet been proved to breed in Northamptonshire. 



Little Gull in Fifeshire in June. — ^Miss E. V. Baxter 

 had several good views of a Larus minutus in an immature 

 stage of plumage in Largo Bay on June 10th, 1914. The 

 bird is seldom seen in summer {Scot. Nat., 1914, p. 164). 



