2 NOTES — ORNITHOLOGY. 



perform her work in the same way, and from the great abrasion 

 most of the grains of the red rocks of the Trias of Lancashire and 

 Cheshire have undergone, I am incHned to believe that the colora- 

 tion must in many cases have been subsequent to the sedimentation. 

 The well-known porosity of these sandstones lends itself to this 

 explanation. One cubic foot of Runcorn Stone will hold three 

 quarts of water, and I have shown in a demonstration at the 

 Liverpool Architectural Society that a solid sandstone syphon may 

 be made that will empty one vessel of water into another by simple 

 capillarity. Colouring matter may have been introduced in this way 

 by the circulation of water containing iron in solution. In other 

 cases, no doubt, colouring matter may have been introduced 

 simultaneously with the sediment. 



NO TES— ORNITHOL OGY. 



Long-tailed Duck inland in Northumberland. — The above heading is 

 not intended to call attention to the presence of this bird as a Northumbrian bird, 

 because it is common enough during winter on the coast, but as on October 30th 

 ult. I happened to come across it some thirty-five miles inland, on a sheet of 

 water near Haydon Bridge in Northumberland, I think the fact of sufficient 

 interest to send to this journal. 



I have no doubt the bird, which was a female, had been driven out of its 

 course, the wind during the previous night having blown very hard from the S.W. 

 I have never before known or heard of this bird being found inland in Northum- 

 berland. And on the same sheet of water where it was busy diving when 

 I noticed it, I shot a pair of Tufted Ducks (old female and an immature bird) on 

 September 9th ult. Golden-Eyes, Mallard, and Teal also frequent this pool. 

 I noticed Redwings in numbers on 30th ult., having heard them shrieking over- 

 head in the darkness at midnight on the sea-coast several nights before. On 

 October 5th I was struck with the prodigious number of Blackbirds, mostly 

 cocks, whilst shooting in turnip-fields in Northumberland. No doubt they would 

 be new arrivals. — .\lfred C. Chapman, Roker, Sunderland, Nov. ist, 1889. 



The Two-barred Crossbill in Lincolnshire, etc. — I am indebted to 

 Mr. Giitke for the following information in connection with the occurrence oi Loxia 

 bifasciata (C. L. Brehm) in Heligoland, in the autumn of 1889 : — 



' Common Crossbills in plenty, mixed, or rather followed, by the white-winged 

 species (Z. bifasciata). It has not been obtained here for many years. I stuffed 

 three old vermilion males, one yellow male, two old grey females with bright 

 yellow rump, and an interesting young bird in the first complete plumage — grey 

 and black, striped on the rump, white, with black stripes. 



'The dates of their appearance are — August 14th, two, male and female, stuffed ; 



a few more seen. September Ist, six ; 15th, several seen, one caught ; i6th, the 



■ same ; 18th, three red, one grey, caught ; 22nd, six, caught three — were altogether 



about fifteen, and greatly more than that number seen. Several were put in cages, 



and went to wreck and ruin, or were sold alive to the summer visitors.' 



I have now before me a Lincolnshire example that was shot at South 

 Cockerington, between Louth and the coast, in the autumn of this year, and taken 

 in the flesh to Mr. Kew of the latter place, for preservation. It is a remarkably 

 fine adult male bird. Comparing it with a skin of L. leucoptera, kindly lent me 

 by Mr. Gurney, the wings, tail, and scapulars are quite as black as in the 

 American bird, the bright parts are inclined to ver/itilion, but in L. leucoptera 

 they are distinctly rose-)-ed, without any trace of that colour. In the western 

 species also the beak is considerably weaker than in the European bird, and not 

 so deep at the base. — John Cordeaux, Great Cotes, Ulceby, Nov. 7 th, 1889. 



Naturalist, 



