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Notes

01 March 1962 Comments Notes Peregrine incubating Kestrel's eggs.--On 13 th May 1961, I was prospecting some crags in the Great Glen, Inverness-shire, in the hope of rinding a pair of nesting Peregrines (Falco peregrinus). As I approached the most likely-looking face from below, a fe...

Studies of less familiar birds 117. Scarlet Grosbeak

01 March 1962 Comments Main paper Asiatic bird whose range extends into eastern Europe. It is a rare visitor to Britain, apart from Shetland (notably Fair Isle) where it is of annual occurrence in the autumn. It is a species which is in the process of expanding quite vigorously north and ...

How do Black-headed Gulls distinguish between eggs and egg-shells

01 March 1962 Comments Main paper {Lams ridibundus) remove the empty eggshell shortly after the hatching of the chick. An investigation into the survival value of this response and of the stimuli eliciting it (Tinbergen et al. 1962a) yielded the following results. An empty egg-shell at a ...

Foot-paddling in Gulls

01 March 1962 Comments Main paper I S H O U L D L I K E to supplement the interesting comments recently made by Sparks (1961) on the functions of foot-paddling in gulls, since more is known about it than is apparent from his article. In my book The Herring Gull's World (1953), where I ref...

Development of Paddling and other movements in young Black-headed Gulls

01 March 1962 Comments Main paper R E C E N T L Y , in an interesting paper in this journal, Sparks (1961) discussed the relationship between foot-movements and feeding in shore birds. In view of his conclusions, it seems worth recording the age at which paddling and other movements were ...

Mass mortality among European Common Terns in South Africa in April-May 1961

01 March 1962 Comments Main paper In 1961, an unknown but apparently substantial proportion of the migrant population lingered long after the usual departure date and during April many became ill and died. High mortalities were observed at several localities from Port Elizabeth in the ea...

Weights from five hundred birds found dead on Skomer Island in January 1962

01 March 1962 Comments Main paper Department of Zoology, University College of Swansea S K O M E R , 722 A C R E S , is the largest of the islands off the Pembrokeshire coast and one of the most westerly points in Wales. A visit was made there from 2nd to 5 th January 1962, during one of ...

Studies of less familiar birds 110. Grey-rumped Sandpiper

01 January 1961 Comments Main paper rumped Sandpiper (Tringa brevipes)* because it inhabits the remotest and wildest mountains of north-eastern Siberia. During the last few years, however, observations have been made by A.V.K., V. I. Kapitonov, K. A. Vorobiev and A. P. Vaskovski, and the fo...

Four invasions of Waxwings during 1956-60

01 January 1961 Comments Main paper T H E W A X W I N G (Bombycilla garrulus) has a Holarctic breeding distribution in the boreal zone (see Fig. i) reaching the July isotherm of 50Â° F and extending from Fenno-Scandia right across the Eurasian land-mass and into north-western America. The...

Recent reports and news

01 January 1961 Comments News and comment The items here are largely unchecked reports, and must not be regarded as authenticated records. They are selected, on the present writers' judgment alone, from sources generally found to be reliable. Observers' names are usually omitted for reasons of sp...

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