Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/314

288 young birds on the shores here as early as July 6th, but the main flocks do not appear before the end of that month.

Avocet, Recurvirostra avocetta.—Has only once come under my notice. On October 28th, 1875, I was returning from Bartragh in my punt, with the gun unloaded, when just before reaching the landing-place I noticed a pair of birds feeding with some Greenshanks in the shallow water on the sand-bank. They looked so very white in the evening light that at first I took them to be albino Greenshanks; however, as the boat approached, the Greenshanks went off, leaving the other birds still feeding, and when I got closer to them I saw they were Avocets. Being very tame they allowed me to bring the boat within eight or ten yards of them, from which distance I watched them feeding for a long lime—in fact, until the evening light began to fail. Next day I saw them resting on the shore, but being unable to get a shot, I asked my friend Captain Dover to look out for them when out with his punt-gun. A few days afterwards he obtained both birds at a shot, one of which he kindly gave to me, and the other he presented to the Royal Dublin Society's Museum.

Black-tailed Godwit, Limosa melanura.—Rare on this part of the coast. A bird in full summer plumage was shot on the tidal part of the river near Belleek by Mr. Howley some time in May, 1863. A solitary bird has occasionally come under my notice in winter, but until last winter I never obtained a specimen. On the 6th November last I got a very fine bird in winter plumage, and at the same shot bagged thirteen lapwings, thirteen Redshanks, and a Bartailed Godwit.

Bartailed Godwit, Limosu rufa.—Common in the bay and estuary during winter, but seen in greatest numbers in spring and early summer. These birds begin to assemble in large flocks about the beginning of March, increasing in numbers all through that and the following month,—probably coming from more southern haunts,—and although some leave during April, yet large flocks remain about the estuary all through May and even up to the middle of June, and strange to say, all, with few exceptions, exhibiting no trace of the red summer plumage. I saw a flock of over one hundred birds near Bartragh on June 11th, 1872, and another large flock on the 14th of that month. In 1873 I saw large flocks on June 17th, all in the pale plumage, and on three occasions only have I seen any in the red plumage. On the 10th