Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/186

160 the seaside by a line of sandhills. This dreary uncultivated tract of country abounds in rushy pools and peat-bogs, the home of Snipe and Duck, where doubtless long ago the "boom" of the Bittern was often heard—a sound which, alas! no longer greets the wild-fowl shooter as he returns from the evening flight-shooting. Some interesting birds breed yearly on this moor, among which may be mentioned the Eider Duck, Shieldrake, Curlew, Golden Plover, Redshank, Dunlin, and a large colony of Terns. The locality therefore must be regarded as a most favourable one from which to study the habits of wild birds in their proper haunts. I will only add that such notes as I may contribute to 'The Zoologist' will be penned solely from my own observation.

On the 2nd September I shot a Greenshank up the Eden: a few of these birds are procured every autumn, but only en passant; none seem to remain through the winter. During this month the mud-flats at the mouth of the river present a very lively appearance, owing to the numerous flocks of various waders which for a time pay us a visit en route for more southern shores. Among others I noticed several flocks of Bartailed Godwits and Gray Plovers; one of the latter which I shot—evidently a young bird of the year—was so much marked on the back with a light shade of yellow that I took it for a young Golden Plover, and it was not until I got home that, by the presence of the hind toe, I detected the species. The first wild geese seen this autumn were observed flying over the links on September 26th.

Early in October a great number of Gannets were fishing in the bay, mostly young birds of the year, doubtless from the Bass Rock, which is but a short distance off. On the 7th a Red-breasted Merganser was shot. Enormous flocks of Plovers, both Green and Golden, breed on the hills inland, and frequent the mud-flats at low tide and the adjoining fields at high tide during the autumn, but leave us towards the end of October, a small number only remaining throughout the winter. Several Knots killed out of a large flock on the 16th retained traces of the summer plumage: in some specimens the whole of the breast was suffused with a light buff-colour; these are doubtless young birds of the year.

Returning home at dusk from shore-shooting on October 18th, two small waders rose close to me, and began wheeling round, uttering a plaintive but pleasing note with which I was not familiar,