Avocet in Dorset.—On Nov. 12th, 1898, I received from one of my collectors a fine female Avocet (Recurvirostra avocetta). The bird had been seen in the district for several days, but was exceedingly wild; it was, however, eventually secured during a foggy day.—E. Baylis (Birmingham).
Terns in the Isle of Man.—Referring to former notes (Zool. 1896, p. 471), I may mention that a dead bird found this season at the Tern colony there described, and which is still occupied, proved, on examination of the beak and wing, to be Sterna arctica. But an even more interesting discovery was that of the nesting of Sterna minuta, a species, I believe, never before recorded in Man. On 22nd June last I found a small colony of this bird on a sandy barren close to the coast; I saw two clutches of two eggs each, and again a single egg. All these were laid on the bare sand, with no lining whatever, and scarcely any perceptible nest hollow. Many stones were scattered over the ground; there was little vegetation, and that very small and scattered.—P. Ralfe (Castletown, Isle of Man).
Food of Grebes.—Two Sclavonian Grebes (Podicipes auritus, Linn.) have been sent to me this winter, and when mounting the last one, on Dec. 19th, I found in its stomach, in addition to the feathers and elytra of water-beetles that I discovered in the first specimen, numbers of caterpillars, which I sent on to a well-known entomologist, who kindly tells me that they are the larvæ of one of the Crane-flies, which are well known as the destructive grubs of the Daddy Longlegs, or Tommy Taylor, as it is called in parts of the county (Tipula oleracea). These Grebes have been by no means uncommon this winter, and were on a large expanse of inland flood-water, where I have had some good shooting with the lessee in single-handed punts with big guns, when the water has been out and Ducks abundant. I take it that, the meadows being flooded, the grubs which generally feed at the roots of grasses, &c., climbed up into the fences, bushes, or anywhere they could, and so were secured by the Grebes; for, good divers as they undoubtedly are, I scarcely think they would pull up the grass by the roots in twelve or fourteen feet of water to hunt for grubs.—Oxley Grabham (Chestnut House, Heworth, York).
