Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/457

Rh back again from a spot best not localised. On Aug. 21st the old birds capturing juvenile Herrings for their young was a most interesting observation, while the eager and fussy solicitations of the young Terns were charming. They followed their parents awing, preferring to drop on to the surface of the water to receive their dole. Two or three score used Breydon up to the end of August, when, alas! some guns arrived to break up these happy family parties. If men would only learn how much more delightful and bewitching it is to look down the inside of a field-glass than to squint down a gun-barrel, what greater happiness would obtain to all parties concerned! A Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia) turned up on July 24th, and a young Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus) on July 2nd. Two Cuckoos were piping early on the morning of July 3rd. One gave the cry in the natural key; the other more shrilly, and half a tone higher; and, curiously enough, unaided by an echo, piped "cuck-cuck-oo!" I never heard this cry before; have any of your readers? I had ample opportunity for hearing many a repetition of it.

The Heron is a bit of a wag in his way. One, having satisfied the cravings of hunger, amused himself catching such little Eels and Flounders as came near his submerged feet, letting them go again—probably with a caution! Imitating the cry of a passing youngster, in the dusk on Aug. 4th, I decoyed him to within a very short distance of my head. Greenshanks were fairly numerous "on call" during August. Knots, Turnstones, Curlew-Sandpipers, in some numbers too—the Knots so tame that a couple I passed and repassed would not flit from a bit of floating wood they were resting on until forced to fly by water repeatedly splashed on to them by my oar; they seemed to wonder, as I did, what business of mine it was to interfere. Only one Spoonbill was observed on Breydon this year, which, being innocent enough to wander to the marshes, was shot.— (Ibis House, Great Yarmouth).

Wood-Sandpiper in the Orkney Islands.—I think perhaps it may be of interest to record the occurrence of the Wood-Sandpiper (Totanus glareola) in the Orkney Islands. A friend of mine shot one in my presence on the island of Eday on Sept. 1st. It rose out of a Snipebog, and at the moment of firing he took it for a Snipe; but, on examining it, we soon identified it as a Wood-Sandpiper. Both Wood and Harting say that the bird is rare in Scotland, so perhaps this note may be worth printing. The bird was tame, but it had an even more erratic flight than the Snipe.— (Newtimber Place, Hassocks).