Vol. xxiii.] 104 



Mr. Montagu also exhibited a fine male example of the 

 so-called " Paget's Pochard/^ which is a hybrid between the 

 Common Pochard {Fuligula ferina , L.) and the Ferruginous 

 Duck (F. nyroca, Giildenst.). The bird had been shot by a 

 local gunner at Potter Heigham^ Norfolk, in the latter part 

 of March 1909. 



Mr. Montagu went on to make remarks on the great 

 destruction of small birds, especially Chaffinches and Gold- 

 finches, in the county of Cambridgeshire, caused by the Little 

 Owl {Athene noctud). 



Mr. Meade-Waldo and the Hon. Walter Rothschild, 

 who were chiefly responsible for the introduction of this 

 species into Kent and Hertfordshire respectively, said that 

 though they were aware that the Little Owls had of late 

 years greatly increased in these counties and certainly killed 

 numbers of small birds, especially Sparrows and other Pinches, 

 they did not believe that they caused any serious diminution 

 among the smaller Passeres. 



Mr. Montagu asked the Members of the Club to consider 

 the danger to British indigenous species and the confusion 

 to science resulting from the introduction of such birds as 

 the Willow-Grouse ; and he gave notice that at the next 

 meeting of the Club, to be held on the 20th of October, it was 

 his intention to propose the following resolution : — 



" That the Members of the British Ornithologists' 

 Club are strongly of opinion that, in the interests of the 

 study of Ornithology and the preservation of indigenous 

 and peculiar species, the introduction, in a wild state, 

 of such birds as the Willow-Grouse, or Ryper, is to be 

 deprecated." 



A discussion then arose on the subject of Hybrid 

 Ducks, on which some interesting remarks were made by 



