238 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



a yew tree or other evergreen. The weather was wet. Migrant 

 Blackcaps appeared on April 30th, and we have more than we have 

 had for some years. On May 3rd four, if not five, were singing not 

 far from this house. — 0. V. Aplin. 



Gannet plunging for its Prey. — Perhaps the principal desideratum 

 still remaining in the life-history of the Gannet or Solan Goose is a 

 satisfactory photograph of this singular bird, taken whilst it was in 

 the act of plunging into the sea for its prey, and the writer would be 

 grateful to anyone who could secure him such a snapshot, which 

 ought not to be very difficult to procure in the vicinity of the Bass 

 Kock or Ailsa Craig, where Gannets are plentiful. — J. H. Gueney 

 (Keswick Hall, Norwich). 



Supposed Breeding of Tufted Duck and Pochard in Northants. — 

 On May 11th, 1914, I had an opportunity of seeing what birds there 

 were on the lakes at Fawsley Park, Northamptonshire. I was pleased 

 to see, besides ordinary birds, three pairs of Tufted Ducks and a pair 

 of Pochards. The ducks and drakes of the respective pairs of the 

 Tufted Ducks kept close together and did not leave the water. The 

 Pochards got up, and after flying round twice — uttering their loud 

 rattling " carragh " as they flew past — pitched again on the lake. I 

 think, from the presence of these birds at that late date in the spring, 

 there is a strong probability that they intended to breed there, if 

 indeed the ducks had not already begun to lay. Lord Lilford, in his 

 'Birds of Northamptonshire' (1895), does not give any instance of 

 either of these ducks breeding in that county ; but the fact of their 

 doing so may have been noticed and recorded since that date. The 

 Pochard has been suspected of breeding in Northants at Byfield 

 Reservoir for some years past. I saw a pair there in August, 1895. 

 On July 6th, 1900, I saw a drake in the same place. In 1903 the 

 Pochard was believed to have laid eggs there — the keeper reporting 

 a nest containing "brown" duck's eggs mown out on the banks. On 

 June 14th, 1905, there were three drakes and four ducks on the 

 water. — O. V. Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon). 



Corn-Crake (Crex pratensis) in Essex. — On May 18th I heard a 

 Corn-Crake in a meadow at Piercing Hill, Theydon Bois ; it was 

 there the next morning and the next night, but I have not heard it 

 since. An unfamiliar quality in its note led me to time it, when I 

 found that the "crake" was uttered at the rate of about twenty to 

 twenty-three times a quarter minute. All those I have timed else- 

 where have called at the rate of about sixty-two to the minute. A 



