Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/522

496 I believe the month of August never passes without some visiting their favourite haunts in the first mere. Several Black-tailed Godwits have been seen and four killed, two of which, both immature birds, were brought to me, one on the 24th August and the other on the 1st September. I had a good opportunity of watching a small party of four in the first mere early one morning. I have never met with these birds before, and have only seen one specimen in the flesh, which 1 recorded in 'The Zoologist' for 1871. On the 6th September 1 killed an adult Red-necked Grebe in the River Iken, and on the evening of the same day I had a young Shoveller Duck, two Turnstones, and a curious light-coloured variety of the Sand Martin brought in by one of the gunners. A Temminck's Stint and two beautiful Sanderlings were killed at Thorpe on the 8th September, all of which I obtained. I met with a flock of Curlew Sandpipers in the North Mere on the 10th, and shot two, both young birds. On the 26th I received an immature male Ruff, a Little Slint, and a Temminck's Stint from Aldeburgh.— (Tostock House, near Bury St. Edmunds).

—The large piece of water known as "Fleet Pond," near Aldershot Camp, through which the South-Western Railway runs, between Farnborough and Fleet Stations, has recently been almost emptied for the purpose of destroying the weeds. These had grown to such an extent that the fishing was virtually at an end. The pen-stock was opened on the 17ih August, and has been closed about three weeks or so. As we have had little or no rain up to the present date (l'2th October) there is still very little water in the pond, and a large expanse of mud and sand continues to offer unusual attractions to various Wadei-s and Ducks. Besides Curlews, Green Sandpipers, Dunlins, Gulls, a stray Tern or two, Snipe, and a considerable accession of Ducks, Herons and Lapwings, we have had several more noteworthy visitors. On the 23rd August I observed three Greenshanks and shot one for identification; on the 27th September there were two Ruffs, of which I shot one (this is, I think, somewhat late for this species to remain with us); and on the 6th inst. I obtained a Gray Plover, which had been badly wounded by an officer there. I previously saw two of them together, both on the ground and on the wing, but could not be sure of their identity: this is a rare bird so far inland. The Herons, of which as many as twenty sometimes assemble in the shallow water, are doing considerable damage to the fish, and are having a rare time of it. So also are the Carrion Crows,—which feed greedily on the large freshwater mussels left exposed by the receding waters,—the Snipe, and the Ducks. Of the latter family I have only seen one stranger, which I think was a Tufted Duck; most of them are common Wild Ducks from Dogmersfield Park and Hawley Pond.—

—About two years ago, when staying at Bassenthwaite, near Keswick, where I had gone for a couple