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NOTES. UNUSUAL CALL OF CARRION . IN reference to Mr. Mayo's note (trntea, vol. xliii, p. 368), the call he mentions, which he aptly likens to the sound of a distant machine- gun or the drumming of a woodpecker, is regularly used by Carrion ( corone) in parts of Surrey and Middlesex and doubt• less elsewhere as well. In the versions I have heard, this note has the same mechanical quality as the clicking notes of the female ( glandarius) and it is uttered in the same posture as the Jay uses (vide, ante a, vol. xlii, pp. 278-285). This note is heard usually at excited gatherings involving not fewer than two pairs of Carrion Crows. Whether this note is used only by the female I cannot say, but I strongly suspect so, as on occasions when four Crows have been involved I have never seen more than two of them utter this note. Sometimes this note is uttered in flight and in this case the same posturing is used as when perched, which suggests that this arching of the back, and forward and downward reaching of the head is to be considered primarily as necessary for producing the note and only secondarily as a display. This note, or one essentially similar, I have heard from a {Corvus frugilegus) in Yorkshire and also from Hooded Crows (C. comix) in , but foolishly I did not write down any details at the time. Some years before the war a captive in Chessington Zoo, responded to my talking to it by giving these notes with appropriate posturings just as a tame female Jay will often do. Almost certainly this note can be considered as essentially the same as that of the female Jay and probably is, like it, indicative of excitement containing some element of sexual feeling or sexual jealousy. Possibly this call was evolved prior to the speciation of the as it appears homologous with the " hiccupping " note of the Florida Jay ( ccerulescens) as described by Amadon {American Museum Novitates, No. 1252, Jan. 24, 1944) in every respect except that this points its bill upwards and not downwards when uttering its " hiccup " call. DEREK GOODWIN. [We have received a note on the same subject from Mr. C. J. O. Harrison, who refers to a " long-drawn, hollow, rolling or rattling croak, low in pitch." He states that he has heard this note from a flock of Carrion Crows in the presence of a Sparrow-Hawk (Accipiter nisus), from a pair mobbing a Sparrow-Hawk, and from a bird swooping to avoid attack by a Starling (Sturnus vulgaris). From these circumstances he judges that this must be the " short, rattling note of aggression " (Handbook). Mr. Goodwin informs us that he believes this note to be quite distinct from the one described by Mr. Mayo, and he shows above that the latter is made in quite different circumstances.—EDS. ] VOL. xxiv.] NOTES. 323

CARRION CROW TAKING FISH. ON May 14th, 1950, while Mrs. E. F. Tate and I were watching by the river Coquet near Warkworth, Northumberland, we saw a (Corvus corone) alight in a shallow, gravelly rapid, catch a small fish which it ate, and fly off! Shortly afterwards it returned to the same spot and very easily and rapidly caught two more, probably about two inches long. It again flew off and this time I noticed its distended throat pouch so it was evidently taking these, and no doubt others previously caught, to its nest to feed its mate or young. We went to the spot which was only some 20 yards away and in a pool adjoining the rapid there were many dozens of trout of various sizes. It was almost certainly this which the bird took. It returned again while we were looking at the fish and, needless to say, on seeing us it sheered off. Previous references to Carrion Crows taking fish (antea vol. xl, pp. 158 and 245 ; xli, pp. 95 and 278) have all concerned a bird's capturing a fish from the surface of the water while in flight. H. TULLY.

SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS HOVERING OVER GRASS. ON July 3rd, 1950, at 12.00, while passing a small piece of grassland surrounded by trees, at Minehead, Somerset, I noticed a pair of Spotted Flycatchers (Muscicapa striata) hovering some 2 feet above the grass, which was about 4 inches high, with weeds up to 15 inches. There had been heavy rain that morning after a prolonged drought, and, no doubt, flies and had come down for shelter, although when I examined the grass afterwards I was unable to find any very special attraction. A fair breeze was blowing and both keeping head on to the wind maintained a wonderfully steady wing-beat. Every 15 or 20 seconds one or other of them would drop down into the herbage, stay a second or two, and then commence to hover again. Their tails were slightly depressed, and the whole performance was so perfect that it reminded one of midget Kestrels (Falco tinnunculus). The Handbook makes no mention of hovering by this species. A. V. CORNISH. [Lt.-Col. B. H. Ryves informs us that he has frequently seen the type of hovering described by Mr. Cornish, and has also seen hovering at a height of 50 or 60 feet. He states that occasionally the male will hover before the nest to feed the sitting female, though the normal practice is to alight on the rim of the nest.—EDS.] SPOTTED FLYCATCHER BUILDING IN GREENFINCH'S NEST IN TWO SUCCESSIVE YEARS. A record of Greenfinches (Chloris Moris) using the previous year's nest has been published (antea, vol. xlii, p. 327). I have notes of a somewhat similar case. In 1946 a pair of Greenfinches nested nearly at the tip of a horizontal branch of a large cedar near Llanymynech, Montgomeryshire. The nest was about 20 feet from the trunk and less than five feet from the ground. After the young had flown the 324 BRITISH BIRDS. [VOL. XLIV. nest was occupied by Spotted Flycatchers (Muscicapa striata), but raided by a natural enemy, I think a grey squirrel, before the young left. In 1947 Greenfinches again occupied the site but I do not know if any of the original nest was still there. They again reared a brood and after that the flycatchers occupied the nest once more. Once more they were raided, again I think by a grey squirrel. I cannot say whether the same Greenfinch laid the eggs each year, but I feel quite certain it was the same flycatcher as the eggs were rather distinctive. J J. H. OWEN. NIGHTJARS MOBBING OWLS. DURING the summer of 1949 I had under observation in Darenth Wood, Kent, ten breeding pairs of Nightjars (Caprimulgus europcsus) on which I kept detailed notes. On one occasion—22.30, June 21st—I was somewhat surprised to see a pair of Nightjars chase and mob a Tawny Owl (Strix aluco) which had chanced to cross their territory. The attack lasted for about half a minute accompanied by much wing-clapping and excited " co-ics " from the Nightjars. After a number of pairs had eggs they tended to be even more aggressive towards the two species of owl present in the locality. A Little Owl (Athene noctua) happened to fly close by a " churring " male at 2.45 on June 27th. The Nightjar immediately gave chase in the manner previously described and both birds disappeared from view, both calling loudly for two minutes. I have a record—June 23rd, 1949—of a pair of Nightjars chasing a bat (species uncertain) which passed by a nest. It was pursued for a considerable distance, but the birds did not appear in the least excited as when mobbing owls. Woodcocks (Scolopax rusticola) were present in Darenth Wood in 1949, and although they occupied the same area as the Nightjars there was no recorded interference. D. F. OWEN. GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER PERCHING ON LOW BUSH. THE habit of the Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus major) perching crosswise on small branches is well known, but the practice of settling on a low bush is perhaps less usual. Whilst I was walking through some rough ground beside Dunwich Marsh on May 28th, 1950, a bird of this species, previously heard calling, was put up from the ground and flew only a few yards to settle on the top of a low bramble bush. A. H. BETTS. [In 1937 I saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker perch on the very top of a hawthorn, from which position it called repeatedly. I have never before or since seen one perch in this way, but the habit may be much commoner than my experience leads me to suppose.— A.W.B.] " FLYCATCHING " OF GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. ON May 28th, 1950, whilst walking along the River Greet, near VOL. XLIV.] NOTES. 325

Southwell, Notts, I observed a Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendro- copus major) catching flies in the manner of a flycatcher. The bird flew from a tree on the outskirts of a wood, caught a fly in his beak and returned to the same tree. This was repeated ceaselessly for about seven minutes, at the end of which his beak was crammed full of insects, believed to be mayflies. The bird had a nest in the wood. J H. ACKROYD. RED-NECKED PHALAROPE IN LANCASHIRE. ON July 5th, 1947, a Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) was seen by H. Shorrock and myself on a pond at a sewage farm situated on the north bank of the River Ribble near Freckleton, Lancashire. The day had been windy (westerly) with a little rain. The phalarope was flushed on our arrival at the pond but resettled after flying only a few feet. During this time we noted a thin white wing-bar, and the rump appeared much as in Dunlin (Calidris alpina). The bird was an adult in full summer plumage, but unfortunately we did not identify the sex. Our notes and sketches made on the spot tallied exactly with the description given by the late T. A. Coward in Birds of the and their Eggs. The bird was watched for a period of one-and-a-half hours, during which it fed by picking insects from the surface. It did not rotate on the water. We were unable to make it fly ; pebbles thrown near by did not disturb it. The bird was not present on any further visit to the sewage farm. A. HARRISON. [Mr. C. Oakes informs us that the species has been recorded in the county on four other occasions, one of them subsequent to the one reported above ; all occurred in the last week of May or the first half of June. —ED S. ] PLUMAGE OF KENTISH PLOVER. AUTHORS of several recent notes on occurrences of Kentish Plovers (Leucopolius alexandrinus) in have referred to the lighter colour of the back compared with the Ringed Plover's (Charadrius hiaticula). The Handbook contains no mention of this distinction between the two species. It thus seems worth recording that in Egypt on the shores of the Great Bitter Lake, where both species were commonly seen in winter and spring (at least), the distinction was infallible, and after very slight acquaintance one could identify either species in flight at a glance. D. J. MAY. NOTES ON THE BRIDLED TERN IN THE RED SEA. THE Bridled Tern (Sterna ancethetus) is a common summer visitor to the Eritrean coastline, in the southern Red Sea. Birds appear offshore in large flocks about the second week of April, and move inshore in the third week when they tend to split up and fish individually. On calm mornings the sea, usually almost motionless, is dotted for hundreds of miles all down the coast with small parties and single birds hovering and flying in a buoyant manner a few 326 BRITISH BIRDS. [VOL.XLIV. feet above the surface. Although resident only on the islands, large numbers fish close to the mainland shore prior to the breeding season, often coming right into Massawa harbour and occasionally getting blown inland in squally weather. Their call-notes are not described in The Handbook. Except at their breeding stations, they are not very vociferous, compared with many terns. A low subdued " kwit " is heard at times, but the normal harsh, grating and prolonged notes are varied, of which, " karr, " " k-rrr, " " k-ow ," " k-rarr " and a double " ka-karr " are my own inter• pretations of the usual notes uttered by birds seeking fish. The frequent appearance of shoals of small fry being harried to the surface by the larger voracious fish is a signal for the birds to congregate from a wide area with excitement and rather more noise. Murphy, quoted in The Handbook, states that they frequently sit in flocks on the water. They commonly perch on driftwood or buoys, but out of the thousands I saw in several years none was seen on the water except when in difficulties. They will then perch on anything that suggests a stable support; one even landed on my companion's head, after trying to settle on the top of the mast, whilst he was at the tiller of a small yacht in Massawa Bay on a gusty day. As he was wearing a towel on his head in the shape of a turban, and nothing else, the effect was odd, to say the least. It was simple, apart from a few half-hearted pecks, to induce the bird to walk on to my hand, when it nestled quite happily on my lap. Later, not realizing it was unwell, I threw it up into the air. It flew weakly for a short distance and then collapsed into the sea. On this and the following day several others were seen sitting on the water. Some were caught, but all were in the same weak condition, fluttering a short way on being released and then falling into the sea, although a few managed to get under way before being caught. An island near by was frequented by large numbers of healthy birds, and there was no apparent reason for this communal sickness, which may have been due to food-poisoning. The Handbook states that this species "nests on rocky islands or coral cays ". Rocky islands are few and unsuitable for breeding in the southern Red Sea. The birds apparently breed on low, sandy, scrubby islands. I visited the group of islands in Assab Bay just prior to the breeding season. There was much excitement and noise with birds often perching insecurely on the wiry shrubs. Large numbers were seen screaming at probable ferneries in summer over similar islands elsewhere. I was unable to land and prove breeding, but the birds could hardly have been there for any other reason. The birds leave the coast in autumn and are entirely absent in winter. K. D. SMITH. CROSSBILLS IN NORTHANTS.—Mr. M J. Ardley informs us that on August 7th, 1949, he saw a flock of fifteen to twenty Crossbills VOL. XLIV.] NOTES. 327

(Loxia curvirostra) in an afforestation area at Harlestone Heath, Northants. SKY-LARKS SINGING ON MIGRATION.—D. and E. Lack have recorded (antea, vol. xlii, p. 322) cases of Sky-Larks (Alauda arvensis) singing while migrating. A further record has been supplied by Mr. M. J. Ardley who noted " short bursts of song " from Sky-Larks migrating over Harlestone, Northants, between October 6th and 15th, 1949. GREEN SANDPIPER CALLING FROM THE GROUND.—Mr. M. J. Ardley informs us that at Ravensthorpe reservoir, Northants, on October 6th, 1949, he watched a pair of Green Sandpipers (Tringa ochropus) giving the usual " tlooi" flight alarm-call from the ground. Both birds continued feeding while calling.

We have to apologise for an error on p. 247, where Mr. G. A. Hebditch's address was wrongly given : it should be 92. Rydes Hill Road, Guildford (not Croydon, as stated). Mr. Hebditch informs us that the dates selected for co• operative observation of the autumn movements of in 1951 are :— October 7th,i4th and 28th, and November 4th. He will be glad to supply full particulars of this enquiry.