NOTES AND QUERIES. 431 



Male Tufted Duck retaining the Breeding-plumage.— A few years 

 ago I winged a male Tufted Duck, which fell on the Black Lake at Sir A. 

 Reed's, and was left to see if one of the other sex would join it; but 

 it remained in single blessedness all the spring and summer, and 

 surprised me by retaining its full breeding-plumage, only getting a little 

 duller in August. This year I had three pinioned Tufted Ducks on water 

 in front of the house here, two males and one female ; two of them paired, 

 and the other male was left by himself. About May the paired male began 

 to show signs of summer plumage, and by June had completely changed 

 into the dull chocolate dress; but the other male was just as bright and 

 smart as ever, and even now (September ^nd) is in fair breeding-plumage, 

 though during the last month he has got less white on the flanks. — 

 J. Whitaker (Piainworth Lodge, Notts). 



Song of Chaffinch in Autumn.— I heard this bird singing for the 

 first time this autumn, on August 1st, near Birmingham. — W. Harcourt 

 Bath (Ladywood, Birmingham). 



Troglodytes parvulus a Migrant. — When we observe the habitually 

 short flights taken by the Common Wren when disturbed, and examine its 

 small and apparently feeble wings, it is difficult to understand how so 

 diminutive and weak a bird can traverse wide open tracts where no trees 

 exist, and even venture to cross the sea. Yet that it does so, both in spring 

 and autumn, is evident from the returns received from the keepers of the 

 lightships and lighthouses. In the last Report (the eighth) on the Migration 

 of Birds issued by the British Association Committee [vide antea, p. 397) its 

 appearance on the west coast of Scotland is noted (p. 69) at Turnbury on 

 two different days in April, and at Skerryvore on May 6th. In September 

 it was seen at Corsewell and Little Ross ; in October at Rona, Skye, 

 Skerryvore, Rhinns of Islay and Lochindaul ; and in November at Little 

 Ross. On the east coast of Scotland one was captured in August at the 

 lantern at Inch Keith, in the Firth of Forth, and " great numbers" were 

 seen at the Isle of May on the 21st and 24th October (p. 14). On the 

 east coast of England in spring (March 24th) one came on board the light- 

 ship at the Outer Dousing, and was caught on deck, while seven of these 

 little birds were killed against the Flamborough lighthouse on May 17th. 

 In the autumn several were observed at the following lighthouses and light- 

 ships : — Cromer, Cockle, Leman and Ower, Spurn, and Fame (p. 32). This 

 points to a regular migration of the Wren in spring and autumn — a fact 

 which a few j^earsago would have been discredited as improbable. During 

 the last week of September in the present year, when returning one evening 

 from Grouse-hawking on Riddlehamhope Moor, Northumberland, I came 

 unexpectedly upon a Wren making its way across the open moor, far away 

 from all trees, and with no shelter of any kind except the heather in which 



