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Coward: Notes on Cheshire Birds. 



Dromius melanocephalus Dej. Sutton Gravel Pit, near Ret- 

 ford (A. T.) ; Nottingham district (W. E. R.). 



Metabletus foveola Gyll. Clumber (S. P.) ; Sherwood Forest 

 (W. E. R.) ; Bramcote, near Nottingham (W. E. R.). 



Metabletus truncatellus L. Bramcote, near Nottingham, 

 one example (W. E. R.). 



NOTES on CHESHIRE BIRDS. 



Shag in Cheshire. — Mr. C. R. T. Congreve's note (Nat., March io,oi 7 

 p. 75) on the Shag - {Phalacrocorax graculus) in Cheshire is exceedingly 

 interesting - . Cormorants (P. carbo) sometimes visit the estuaries of the 

 Dee and Mersey, and have also been met with inland, but no evidence 

 has been forthcoming - concerning - the Shag until quite recently, and 

 Mr. Congreve's is the first recorded. One, however, visited the mere at 

 Great Budworth, near Northwich, in the winter of 1898-99, and was 

 watched on several occasions by Miss Hargrave, of Great Budworth. It 

 used to spend a g-ood deal of its time on a spit of sand at the mouth of 

 a small brook, and g-ave Miss Hargrave man} 7 opportunities of examining 

 it with her glass. In the following - winter, 1899-1900, she several times 

 watched a Cormorant which frequented the mere for some time. — T. A. 

 Coward, Bowdon, Cheshire, 6th March 1901. 



Ducks on the Cheshire Meres.— The Rev. E. Adrian WoodrufFe- 

 Peacock's note (Naturalist, March J 901, p. 74) is, throug-h no fault of his, 

 a little misleading - . The Tufted Duck (Fuligida fidigula) is a regular winter 

 visitor to the Cheshire meres, and there is strong - presumptive evidence 

 that it occasionally remains to breed. This winter there have been an 

 unusually large number of ducks on all the Cheshire waters ; Pochards 

 (F. ferina) and Tufted Ducks being especially abundant. Since October 

 Mr. C. Oldham and I have seen flocks of Pochards and Tufted Ducks in 

 varying numbers on Redes Mere, Rostherne, Alderley Mere, Mere Mere, 

 Booths' Mere, and Budworth Mere (Marbury, near Northwich). The flocks 

 were largest on Rostherne and Budworth. There were perhaps more 

 Tufted Ducks on Rostherne Mere than on the other waters, and although 

 their white sides showed up very distinctly from a great distance, it was 

 impossible to count them amongst the hundreds of Pochards. On Budworth, 

 where the drake mentioned was killed, the Pochards sometimes numbered 

 two to three hundred birds, and there were on several days during - January 

 small flocks of over a dozen Tufted Ducks. Mr. J. Hindley, who shot the 

 bird recorded, was with me on several occasions, and we used his telescope 

 to examine the flocks ; so that he was well aware of the numbers of the 

 birds. Of late years we have g-enerally seen a few Pochards and Tufted 

 Ducks on all the larger sheets of water, but this winter their numbers have 

 been exceptionally large. The flocks of Mallard {Anas boschas) were also 

 larger than is g-enerally the case. 



At Budworth, on 9th January 1901, I saw a couple of ducks that kept 

 a little apart from the others, and I felt almost sure that one of them was a 

 Scaup (Fidigula marila). On the 16th I ag-ain visited the water, and 

 fortunately managed to g-et close to this bird, which was feeding - with about 

 half a dozen Tufted Ducks close in shore, and the black head and neck and 

 vermiculated back showed undoubtedly that it was a drake Scaup. At 

 a distance the deep chocolate heads of old Pochard drakes look very dark, 

 but when seen so close as a few yards there is no mistaking - the colour. 



A pair of Shovelers (Spatula clypeata) frequented Tabley Mere for some 

 weeks early in the year, and the drake was shot on 13th February, and is 

 now in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester. — T. A. Coward, Bowdon, Cheshire, 

 6th March 1901. 



Naturalist, 



