120 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Slapton Ley, which had been omitted for lack of information 

 from that particular locality. We are not surprised to learn that 

 the Pochard and Shoveller occasionally rear their broods in the 

 vicinity of that attractive sheet of water, but are scarcely 

 prepared to accept the author's view that the presence of young 

 VVigeon there in August indicates their having been hatched in 

 that neighbourhood. Wigeon are amongst the earliest of winter 

 visitors to make their appearance in the South of England. In 

 Sussex we have long been accustomed to see small flocks in 

 September, and larger flocks as the autumn advanced. There is 

 nothing improbable, therefore, in the assumption that Wigeon 

 observed in Devonshire in August may well have been hatched 

 two months earlier in Caithness, Boss, or Sutherland, or even in 

 Lapland or Iceland, for the flight of this Duck is very rapid, and 

 it is not long in acquiring sufficient power of wing for migration. 



We are also somewhat sceptical about the supposed nesting of 

 the Red-necked Grebe in Devonshire; for although this bird is 

 resident in the south of Norway, and breeds not uncommonly in 

 Denmark, and some parts of Northern Germany, it has never yet 

 been recognised but as a winter visitor to the British Islands. 



The Buddy Sheldrake, again, is a bird which we think is very 

 doubtfully to be included as a genuine immigrant to this country. 

 It is so frequently imported and turned out with other ornamental 

 water-fowl, and recovers the use of clipped wings, that in all pro- 

 bability the birds of this species which have been shot from time 

 to time in an apparently wild state have in reality made their 

 escape from the places where they have been introduced. 



Messrs. D'Urban and Mathew give a list of twenty-two 

 species (nine of them American) which have occurred in Corn- 

 wall and the Scilly Islands, but which have not yet been observed 

 in Devonshire. Amongst these we note, with some surprise, the 

 Ortolan, Baillon's Crake, and Boseate Tern ; for we should have 

 supposed that with so many good ornithologists in this county, 

 all these birds would have been detected ere this as periodical 

 visitors to the county. Their discovery probably is only a 

 matter of time. 



This * Supplement ' to the ' Birds of Devon ' is well posted 

 up to date, and includes, amongst additions to the county list, 

 one (namely, the American Yellow-billed Cuckoo) recorded in 

 'The Zoologist' for 1895, p, 376, 



