BIRDS ' Mr. Flinn, of Worcester, killed a very fine specimen, after a desperate resistance, in a field near the Dog and Duck, at Henwick, where it had flown out of the Severn, in January, 1833. This specimen is now in the Society's Museum.' The same authority mentions the Teme and the Avon as rivers on which the bird has been met with. Nothing additional is given by Lees, though it is in- cluded by him in the Malvern list. My own knowledge of this as a Worcestershire bird is confined to such as I have seen pass over. It regularly frequents Lundy Island, and may generally be seen in the Severn estuary where it is known as the salmon gull. 192. Lesser Black-backed Gull. Larus fuscm, Linn. In the winter when the low-lying lands ad- joining the Severn are flooded, small flocks of gulls generally come up from the Severn es- tuary. Among them are often specimens of this gull. Mr. Willis Bund informs me he has on one or two occasions shot examples. 193. Kittiwake. Rissa tridactyla (Linn.). The kittiwake is an occasional visitor to our county, frequenting our rivers or other waters, and never, so far as my observation has gone, having recourse to the open fields. 194. Arctic or Richardson's Skua. Stercora- rius crepidatus (Gmelin). Three instances of the occurrence of this bird in Worcestershire may be mentioned. Morris, in his work on British birds, records one which was met with on the Severn, near Worcester, early in November, 1 846 ; and I have seen and examined a preserved specimen of one shot while resting in the middle of a field at a place called Hoden, in the parish of Cleeve Prior, during the partridge shooting some years since. The third was killed on September 28th, 1899, at Hampton, near Evesham, as I am informed by Mr. T. E. Doeg of Evesham, to whom the specimen was brought when killed. It was an immature bird, as was also the one shot near Cleeve Prior. 195. Little Auk. Mergulm alle (Linn.). This small sea bird has not unfrequently been taken up in Worcestershire and the adjoining counties in a state of exhaustion or dead, chiefly after heavy gales from the south- west. All the specimens examined have been in winter plumage, excepting one in breeding plumage taken up dead at Great Alne near Alcester, Warwickshire, of which I have not the date. 196. Puffin. Fratercula arctica (Linn.). Like the last species the puffin appears only as a storm-driven victim, and is rarely found in Worcestershire excepting dead or exhausted. All those which I have had the opportunity of examining have been in immature plumage, and with the beak not fully developed. It breeds in numbers on Lundy Island. 197. Great Northern Diver. Colymbus glacialis, Linn. Hastings records two occurrences of this fine bird in the county of Worcester, namely, one on the large sheet of water in Westwood Park in 1821, and another which was shot on the Severn in December, 1827. There is a specimen in the Worcester Museum which is labelled as having been killed on the Severn in close proximity to that city, which may be the one killed in 1827. I have known one shot on the Avon near Stratford. 198. Red-throated Diver. Colymbus septen- triona/is, Linn. This species has occurred in Worcestershire too frequently to require a detailed statement of each appearance. In nearly every instance it has been a visitor to the Severn or its tributaries, and in immature plumage. Once only has it been known to occur in adult dress in the valley of the Avon, namely, in Novem- ber, 1858, when one was found in a state of exhaustion by the side of the road between Stratford-on-Avon and the village of Loxley. 199. Great-crested Grebe. Podicipes cristatus (Linn.). There are but few recorded instances of the appearance of this bird in the county. A specimen in full summer plumage in the Worcester Museum is recorded as having been taken at the Camp, near Worcester ; and an- other in the same collection, also in summer plumage, was shot at Woodhampton. A third, in similar plumage, was killed on the Severn at Kempsey, and is now in the writer's col- lection. About 1870 an immature bird of this species was taken on the Cofton reservoir, near Barnt Green. 200. Red-necked Grebe. Podicipes griseigena (Boddaert). Hastings records two specimens of the red- necked grebe, on the authority of Mrs. Perrott, one being shot on the Severn, and the other on the Avon. Both were in the collection of H. E. Strickland, Esq., then living at Cra- combe, near Fladbury. A bird of this species was shot on the Severn, at the Pitchcroft, Worcester, in the winter of 1886-87 or 1887-88, and was brought to Mr. HoUoway 169
