NOTES AND QUERIES. 231 



going to find the Common Guillemot playing the same pranks as its 

 black relative ?) 1 must plead guilty to having slaughtered a great 

 many Guillemots last winter in the hope of getting another doubtful 

 specimen, but have failed utterly, as have others whom I asked to look 

 out for any exceptionally dark or curiously marked specimens. — T. 

 Edmonston Saxby (Halligarth, Baltasound, Unst, Shetland). 



Great Crested Grebe (Podicipes cristatus) on Mansfield Reservoir. 

 My son and self drove over to this large sheet of water to see if there 

 were many Great Crested Grebes nesting on May 6th. The keeper's 

 boy was there with the boat, and when we got well out I was surprised 

 to see so many Grebe. They were near the top end, where there are 

 the only small beds of light water- weeds ; and, as the water was very 

 high after the big rains of the previous days, the nests showed well on 

 top of water. I was delighted to count eleven pairs — twenty-two 

 birds — all in sight, and the boy said there were twelve pairs. We 

 found five nests, and in one five eggs. The keeper, who has looked 

 after the water for twenty-five years, said he had taken great notice, 

 but had never seen five eggs in a nest before ; so we took it for the 

 collection. On rowing back I had the delightful pleasure of seeing 

 twenty Grebe following each other up the middle of the water, and a 

 fine sight it was, and one I never, in nesting or other season, saw 

 before, This bird now nests on all the large lakes in this county, 

 but nowhere in such numbers as it does on this reservoir, which is 

 ninety-six acres in extent. There were numbers of Coots, Water-hens, 

 and two pairs of Little Grebe, also a pair of Tufted Ducks — a grand 

 sight. — J. Whitaker (Rainworth Lodge, Notts). 



Ornithological Notes from Guernsey. — The following notes have 

 been taken since my arrival on the island in November last (1902). 

 The exceptionally hard weather of last winter proved very trying to 

 many species, and I have picked up Robins and seen several other 

 small birds quite numbed with the cold. During the latter part of 

 November and in December the hedgerows were infested with hungry 

 hordes of Redwings and Fieldfares, which suffered much from the 

 guns of the local "sportsmen," and their dead bodies, together with 

 those of Blackbirds and Thrushes, which hung daily in the town 

 market, bore witness to the wholesale slaughter that is carried on 

 among the feathered tribe here. All birds are considered game to the 

 Guernsey " sportsman," and if severe measures are not taken soon to 

 prevent this cruel destruction, there will not be in time a song-bird left 

 in the island. 



Redwing (Turdus iliacus) and Fieldfare [T. pilaris). — Both these 



