Xoies — Ornithology and Flowering Plants. 



Fenland as the Grey-headed Yellow Wagtail, and the Little 

 Ringed Plover, the present position of the Ruff in one of its 

 former chief haunts, Cowbit Wash, the occasional breeding- of 

 the Hooded Crow, the Common Sandpiper, and Dunlin in South 

 Lincolnshire, the excess in numbers in the winter on the Wash 

 waters of the Velvet Scoter over the Common Scoter, also in the 

 autumn of the Pomatorhine Skua over the Arctic; in both these 

 cases the very reverse being the case off the Humber and 

 at Flamborough Head. 



Some birds, several of them being quite common species, 

 appear to have unaccountably decreased near Spalding, such as 

 the Mistletoe Thrush, the Redbreast, Hedge Sparrow, and 

 Jackdaw. - Less remarkable is the decrease of the Quail and 

 Common Pochard. On the other hand, some others, as the 

 Carrion Crow, Goldfinch, Hawfinch, Kingfisher, Turtle-Dove, 

 Red-legged Partridge, and Tufted Duck have increased. — J. C. 



NO TES — ORNI THOL O G Y. 



Great Grey Shrike in Lake Lancashire. — On 26th October 1899 an 

 individual of this {Lanius excubitor) was seen (not shot) near Ulverston by 

 two well-known gentlemen, Messrs. M. Cranke and I. Mason. They are 

 both keen sportsmen and not likely, I think, to be mistaken about the bird. 

 The first-named told me he had not seen a specimen in this area for forty 

 years. Macpherson, Fauna of Lakeland, 117, has two records for Rusland 

 Valley, 1887 and 1891 ; the rest of his chronicles refer to other counties. — 

 S. L. Petty, Ulverston, 2nd November 1899. 



Buzzards and Hen Harrier in Northumberland.— Mr. Duncan, 

 naturalist here, is at present preserving- two magnificent Buzzards, one 

 a Rough-Legged {Archibuteo lagopus) and the other a Common Buzzard 

 iBnteo bateo). 



Mr. Duncan has records of every Buzzard which has passed through 

 his and his late father's hands during a period extending over sixty years, 

 and this present Rough-legged Buzzard is the only specimen which on 

 dissection has been found to contain a bird. In the others there have been 

 remains of rats, mice, rabbits, frogs, and beetles. This bird had been 

 preying on a grouse. 



Mr. Duncan has just finished a Hen Harrier {Circus cyaneus), also shot 

 in Northumberland. This, too, had preyed on a grouse. — H. T. Archer, 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne, 16th November 1899. 



NOTE— FLOWERING PLANTS. 



Vicia tetrasperma, etc., in Cheshire. — Referring to the article on 

 the Flora of Cheshire in the December number of 'The Naturalist,' it may 

 be of interest to record that I came across Vicia tetrasperma Mcench. 

 (V. gemella Crantz. of the 9th Edit. Lond. Cat.) at Moreton, in the Wirral 

 Peninsula, in July last. Near the same place, at Leasowe, I found Lepturus 

 incurvatus Trin. ; and in the spring of last year, also at Moreton, I found 

 Ranunculus parviflorus L. , a species by no means common in the neigh- 

 bourhood. As I have not access to Lord De Tabley's 4 Flora,' I am 

 not sure whether he has given these localities for these interesting species. 

 — W. Wright Mason, St. Mary's Parsonage, Bootle, 5th December 1899. 



Naturalist, 



