NOTES AND QUERIES. 235 



Winter Notes from the Isle of Man.— On Feb. 23rd last I saw in the 

 hands of Mr. G. Adams, of Douglas, a Red-necked Grebe {Podicipes grisei- 

 genu), which a few days before had been killed at the south of the island, 

 and sent to him for preservation. It had the chestnut colour on the neck 

 well developed, and the cheeks whitish grey. I observed no trace at all of 

 the slight crest of the species. In the Isle of Man, as elsewhere, birds 

 suffered severely at the time of the great snowfall (Feb. 6th), and during 

 the prolonged hard weather before and afterwards. On the day following 

 this fall, flocks of birds of various kinds — Rooks, Starlings, and Chaffinches 

 — sat, as if in a stupefied state, on the trees bordering the main road at 

 Laxey, motionless, and regardless of passers-by and the stir of the village. 

 There has been a perceptible thinning of Blackbirds and other song-birds, 

 but Magpies and Jackdaws, which are very numerous and familiar about 

 this place and its immediate neighbourhood, do not seem to be materially 

 reduced in numbers. On Feb. 18th a male Red breasted Merganser (Mer- 

 gus serrator), in full plumage, and an adult Sheldrake (Tadorna cornuta) 

 were found dead on the shores of Douglas Bay. The former was dis- 

 covered " sitting upon a stone with the head folded upon the back." A 

 Heron was caught alive by some boys, who ran it down with a dog, and 

 another, which was brought to Mr. Adams dead, was said to have fallen 

 lifeless from the air while flying. Flocks of Gulls, chiefly of the Black- 

 headed species, Lams ridibundus, though a good many Herring Gulls were 

 also present, spent weeks among the houses of Douglas, being fed by the 

 residents in the roadways and gardens. On Dec. 23rd, and on several 

 subsequent dates, I saw, in Douglas Bay, a Black-headed Gull with a com- 

 plete dark hood. — P. Ralfe (Laxey, Isle of Man). 



Common and Lesser Terns in the Outer Hebrides. — Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, in his 'Manual of British Birds,' p. 631, states that he has no 

 conclusive evidence of the occurrence of Sterna fluviatilis in the Outer 

 Hebrides. When staying at Stornoway with a friend last August we were 

 both somewhat anxious to obtain a specimen of the Arctic Tern (S. macrura), 

 and accordingly rowed out one day to some low islands to the east of the 

 harbour, where Terns were swarming ; but the proportion of the Common 

 to the Arctic species was roughly 15 to 1. I was fortunate enough to 

 obtain a specimen of the latter, and my friend shot one of the Common 

 species in mistake for an Arctic Tern ; so we had ample opportunity for 

 identification. Not being aware of its hitherto unrecorded existence in 

 these parts, we unfortunately did not preserve the bird. Later in the 

 month, when at Barra, there was a small rock in Vatersay Sound which 

 was almost always covered with old and young Common Terns. The 

 reason for this bird having been overlooked in the Outer Hebrides may no 

 doubt be accounted for by the fact (as stated by Mr. Howard Saunders) that 

 when the Common and Arctic Terns inhabit the same area they frequently 



