266 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
a Sclavonian Grebe was brought to me, its only peculiarity being its irides, 
which were yellow; and on the 28th a Goosander. At the beginning of 
March a few Redshanks appeared; and on the 5th of the same month a 
Guillemot was washed ashore, having died of starvation. A large number 
of Brent Geese stayed January and February with us, and towards April a 
few Bean Geese came over.—F. M. Ocitvie (Sizewell, Leiston). 
CorMoRANTS ON THE DorseTsHIRE Coast.—Mr. T. M. Pike, writing 
of the wildfowl in the Poole district (p. 214), says: — “The Green 
Cormorant, formerly quite a rare bird on our cliffs, has now several stations 
on the same piece of wild coast line (7. e. between Old Harry and Lulworth), 
and seems likely to become as familiar as his larger brother, the Shag.” 
Tassume that Mr. Pike has good reason for bestowing the name “ Shag” on 
the larger of the two British species of Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo 
(Linn.), but I have always heard that name applied exclusively to the 
smaller Green or Crested Cormorant, P. cristatus (Faber). My experience 
also conflicts with that of Mr. Pike in regard to the proportion in which 
these two species frequent the Dorsetshire coast. When spending a few 
weeks at Lulworth during the nesting-season of 1865 I made careful 
observations of the birds that were then breeding on that coast, and 
estimated that I saw at least twenty of the smaller green “ Shags” for 
every one of the larger Cormorant. The fishermen at Lulworth called 
them “black shags,” and so common were they along that coast that on 
throwing a stone down from the top of a cliff we frequently saw twenty or 
thirty of them fly out to sea. This was nearly fifteen years ago, and things 
may have altered since then. It is curious, however, if the proportion in 
numbers is now reversed, and the Great Cormorant is now the commoner 
species. Can it be that the larger bird, by usurping the best nesting-places, 
has gradually driven its smaller congener away, in the same way as the 
Jackdaw on some parts of the coast has banished the Chough? Mr. Pike 
will find my notes on the two species, as observed on the Dorsetshire coast, 
in ‘ The Zoologist’ for 1865, pp. 9674, 9675.—J. E. Harrrne. 
Ringe OvZEL WINTERING IN EneLanp.—I am much interested in your 
article on the Ring Ouzel (p. 203). You have certainly proved that a few 
remain sometimes with us through the winter, but I hardly think you have 
proved them entitled to be called “ residents,” a term I conceive that 
ought only to be applied to those species that remain regularly with us 
every year. I think, ‘too, they ought hardly to be classed with the Pied 
Wagtail and Meadow Pipit, numbers of which remain all the year, but 
rather with the Wheatear and Landrail, which have frequently been found at 
uncertain intervals in the winter months. The very fact of several people 
writing to you on the subject proves that they thought the occurrence 
of these birds in winter unusual; but out of the six counties where they 
