Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/171

Rh The Wood Sandpiper (Totanus glareola), another species considered by ornithological writers as a very rare visitant to this country, has appeared in some numbers in the Land's End district. No fewer than nine or ten were shot during the month of August this year: these individuals appeared to be birds of the year. The dusky sandpiper (Totanus fuscus) I have also at length discovered in our neighbourhood, in a very interesting specimen killed by Mr. Pendarves at the Land's End, in the first week of September, in a state of change from summer to winter plumage, as appeared by a few grey feathers appearing on the back. The bird figured by Bewick as the spotted redshank is this bird, and is represented in change of plumage. I have not until now discovered this species in Cornwall. It is not uncommon in the winter season in the fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. This bird completes the group of sandpipers (Totani), all killed in the neighbourhood of Penzance: the existence of the spotted sandpiper (Totanus macularia) of America being doubted as belonging to Britain.

I have also obtained, within the last two months, a very perfect adult female specimen of Montagu's or the ash-coloured harrier (Falco cineraceus), killed near Trereife by Mr. Day le Grice; and another adult male specimen, killed some years since at Trelaske, has also passed into my hands, which, with the hen harrier and marsh harrier, completes the family of Circas of the Falconidae amongst the Cornish birds. I may here perhaps be permitted to suggest, that the example in the museum of the Institution at Truro, labelled as the ash-coloured falcon, is incorrect; that bird appearing to me as being an immature marsh harrier, which its very superior size, and its wings being shorter than the tail, independently of other specific distinctions, evidently point out.

Among the smaller summer birds of passage which I have discovered as visiting our county, I may mention the common redstart and the garden warbler (Sylvia Phœnicura and hortensis), which are both found at Trebartha. I have also in my collection a bird killed near Penzance, which I suspect to be the female black redstart, (Sylvia Tithys). The grey wagtail (Motacilla cinerea), a winter visitant in the south of England generally, breeds annually on the banks of the Lynher in this county.

Penzance, October 31, 1840.

Note on the occurrence of the Squacco Heron near Penzance. I am surprised that one of your correspondents (Zool. 78) should say that only two examples of the squacco heron (Ardea comata) have