NOTES AND QUERIES. 185 



the birds to lie until almost trodden on, and then fly in all directions 

 but the right one, " putting in " to the hedges as soon as might be. 

 They were much more afraid of the Hawk (in front) than of the 

 beaters. Posted where I was, I did not see the Hawk, but, from the 

 description given by one of the guns, it was no doubt a Peregrine, and 

 a " Falcon," although one beater, who was close to it, declared that it 

 was " as big as a Goose." The birds which visit us in autumn are 

 usually birds of the year (as stated in the excellent article on this bird 

 in the fourth edition of 'Yarrell'), real "Passage" or "Peregrine" 

 Hawks ; but in winter, and on into March, I have known blue " Hag- 

 gards" shot on several occasions. — 0. V. Aplin (Oxon). 



Pacific Eider in Orkney. — As the bird is not in existence, or at any 

 rate cannot be produced, Mr. Robinson is hardly justified in stating 

 (ante, p. 143) that the Eider which was shot some years ago by 

 S. Sutherland establishes the occurrence of the Pacific Eider in British 

 waters. Some of the species of Somateria resemble one another very 

 closely, and nothing less than a detailed description of the specific 

 characters can be deemed satisfactory evidence of the occurrence of 

 one of these critical species. Sutherland's recollection of the bird is 

 obviously vague, for in a letter referring to the Graemsay example he 

 says : — " It had a very fine shaped V under the throat, a mark very 

 seldom seen. I have seen it before, but very rare." Even if it be 

 granted that he shot an Eider with a black chevron on the chin, the 

 possibility remains that it was a King-Eider (S. spectabilis), a species of 

 which at least four examples have been recorded from Orkney, or a 

 Dresser's Eider (S. dresseri), a species which sometimes has a dusky 

 chevron on the chin, and in other respects very closely resembles 

 S. v-nigrum. Dresser's Eider is, judging from its geographical range, 

 more likely to occur in British waters than is the Pacific species ; it 

 has, as a matter of fact, been obtained in Holland (cf. Saunders, 

 ' Manual of British Birds,' 2nd edit. p. 460). Whatever the bird may 

 have been which Mr. Ptobinson and his boatmen saw near Stromness 

 in February last, it certainly was not a female Pacific Eider, for he 

 describes it as smaller than a Common Eider, with a head which 

 appeared to be almost white. The average measurements of 8. v-nigrum 

 exceed those of S. vwllisswia, but the females of the two species and of 

 8. dresseri are practically alike in coloration, and can only be dis- 

 tinguished with certainty by the differences in the shape of the bare 

 spaces at the base, and the feathered wedge in the centre of the upper 

 mandible. — Charles Oldham (Knutsford). 



Red Grouse in Anglesea. — On March 21st I picked up some freshly 



