8o ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



flushed an apparently equally dark-coloured bird upon Goswick 

 farm, a few miles south of Berwick ; and in the previous November 

 I saw, in one of the game shops in the town, an unusually dark- 

 coloured snipe, which was, in fact, nearly midway between a Sabine's, 

 properly so called, and the common form : the whole of the under 

 parts were more or less blotched with brown, and the pale margins 

 to the feathers of the back and scapulars were altogether wanting. 

 It was rather an unusually small specimen, and had been killed in 

 the neighbourhood. 



JACK SNIPE, Gallinago gallinula (Linnaeus). Not so frequent as 

 the common species, but occurs regularly in the same places every 

 autumn. It generally appears in the first days of October. On the 

 3rd of that month, in 1891, I saw Mr. A. H. Evans shoot one, 

 which we flushed from a heap of sea-weed lying upon the sands at 

 high-water mark. 



SANDERLING, Calidris arenaria (Linnaeus). Not very numerous, 

 but a few are always to be found running about the water's edge on 

 the sandy shores a few miles south of Berwick during autumn and 

 winter. They arrive in July and August, the adults then retaining 

 more or less of their worn and faded summer dress : those which 

 spend the winter with us seem to be mostly young birds, the full 

 adult winter plumage not being very often obtained. 



The Sanderling loves a wide stretch of sand, and is consequently 

 not likely to tarry about the Berwickshire coast ; but I have some- 

 times met with it at the mouth of the Tweed one occasion being 

 on 23rd August 1883, when my brother picked up a dead example 

 behind the pier, and we saw several others flying about with the 

 Ring Dotterels and Dunlins. 



In spring it sometimes lingers until the complete summer plum- 

 age has been attained. On 2oth May 1884 I saw a flock of not 

 less than a couple of hundred of them, besides several smaller com- 

 panies, upon the sands at Holy Island ; some of these, which I 

 watched through a glass, being in full breeding dress. On the same 

 day there were also present three Gray Plovers with full black 

 breasts, a Whimbrel, many Turnstones, Godwits, and Curlews, 

 besides flocks of Dunlins and Ring Dotterels. 



CURLEW SANDPIPER, Tringa subarquata, Giildenstadt. An 

 autumn visitant, which only appears for a few days on migration in 

 September. Previously to 1884 I had not detected it here, and 

 only once or twice on the adjoining coast of Northumberland, but 

 since then it has not been unfrequent. There are several examples 

 in my collection which have been shot at the mouth of the river, on 

 Callot Shad, and behind the pier. 



When flying, the Curlew Sandpiper is easily distinguished from a 

 Dunlin by its white rump ; and, seen in a mixed flock upon the 

 sands, will be observed to stand perceptibly higher upon its legs. 



