302 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
and will feel an interest in anything connected with the Ornithology of 
the place. I was there on a flying visit on May 13th and 14th, and 
as usual took a ramble over the meres to see what birds were to be found. 
This spring seems to have been a good one for birds. One of the gunners 
told me he had seen several Godwits and Grey Plovers in their breeding 
dress. Peewits and Redshanks were very plentiful, especially the latter, 
and Coots were breeding abundantly in the first mere, but many of the eggs 
of all three species have been taken. I saw many Lesser Terns, and one 
Black Tern, which was frequenting the first mere. The Common Terns, 
which are generally a few days later than the smaller species, had not yet 
arrived. There were a few Black-headed Gulls about, and I noticed one 
fine adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. In the further mere I watched two 
splendid male Shelldrakes for a long time with a telescope, and was told 
that the females were sitting in some of the rabbit-burrows on the heath, 
where they used to breed regularly, as well as at Blackheath and at Iken. 
But the most interesting birds which I observed were a pair of Widgeon, 
which I feel sure, from their actions, are breeding somewhere in the 
neighbourhood. When the cock bird rose he took a short flight around 
and settled again in the water close to the female, and both birds seemed 
unwilling to leave a particular spot in the meres; close to this very spot, 
moreover, a young Widgeon unable to fly was caught alive last year, and 
taken to a friend of mine.—Jurian Tuck (S. Mary’s Clergy-house, Cardiff). 
CorRMORANTS ON THE DokrsersHire Coast.—Referring to the Editor’s 
note under this heading in the last number of ‘ The Zoologist’ (p. 266), a 
word of explanation from me seems desirable. The large Cormorant, 
Phalacrocorax carbo, is the only species of the genus which frequents the 
estuary at Poole, and is there universally known as the “Shag.” With 
regard to the smaller bird, P. cristatus, it occurs accidentally only in the 
harbour, and to the eastward of Swanage; and, when met with, is regarded 
as being merely a small specimen of the larger bird. The few specimens 
procured are usually in immature plumage,—an adult crested bird being 
considered as something quite out of the common,—and brought in by the 
fishermen and gunners of the locality as a “rare foreign bird.” With 
reference to the relative numbers of the two species on the coast-line of 
Dorsetshire, my experience is as follows :—Starting from Poole (of course 
none breed in the harbour, there being no place suited to their habits), the 
first colony we come to is on the cliffs at the back of Ballard Head; it isa 
large one, and consists entirely of the larger species of Cormorant; to the 
westward of Swanage, between Durlstone and St. Albans, not many 
Cormorants breed, but here we first come across the smaller or crested bird. 
I should think that, here, the numbers of the two species are about equal. 
Beyond St. Albans, about eight miles to the westward, comes Lulworth, the 
a 
