A LIST OF THE BIRDS OF BERWICK-ON-TWEED 83 



REDSHANK, Totanus calidris (Linnaeus). One or two may often 

 be seen about the mouth of the Tweed during autumn and winter, 

 but it is a shy bird, and impatient of the constant risks of being shot 

 at in such places. Along the coast it is always present at this season, 

 sometimes gathering into considerable flocks. Two or three pairs 

 nest in boggy ground on Lamberton Moor, just north of our limits, 

 and there are several breeding stations in Northumberland, at no 

 great distance from the town. 



DUSKY REDSHANK, Totanus fuscus (Linnaeus). A rare autumn 

 visitant, has occurred two or three times upon the coast, within 

 seven or eight miles of the south of the borough : a specimen in 

 my collection was shot by the side of a pond near Barmoor, in 

 Northumberland, about November 1891. 



GREENSHANK, Totanus canescens (J. F. Gmelin). A regular 

 autumn visitant, in small numbers, to the Northumbrian coast in 

 the neighbourhood of Holy Island, and sometimes winters there. 

 About the mouth of the Tweed, or passing over Berwick, in 

 September, I have seen it on perhaps half a dozen occasions during 

 the last nineteen years, but have more frequently been attracted by 

 its clear wild whistle as the birds flew over the town in the darkness. 



As an unusually late date to meet with this species hereabouts, 

 I may mention a pair which passed close to me near the railway 

 station on nth May 1884. 



BAR-TAILED GODWIT, Li/nosa lapponica (Linnasus). An autumn 

 and winter visitant ; frequents the mud flats at Holy Island in im- 

 mense flocks, and straggles along the coast-line singly, and in small 

 parties. Occasionally appears in August in the red summer dress, 

 and I have met with it in spring as late as the third week in May. 



I have several times seen and shot it on the shad at the mouth 

 of the Tweed, and on the rocks northwards; and scarcely an autumn 

 passes in which we do not recognise its peculiar call notes as the 

 birds pass over the town on migration at night. 



BLACK-TAILED GODWIT, Limosa belgica (J. F. Gmelin). There 

 are three specimens in my collection, obtained upon the sands 

 between Goswick and Holy Island, in September, since 1883, and 

 others have occurred there, but we have no nearer record. It seems 

 to vary in size quite as much as the common Godwit. Upon the 

 ground it may readily be distinguished from that species by its 

 conspicuously longer legs and greater bulk. 



CURLEW, Numenius arqiiata (Linnreus). A well-known and 

 common visitant to our shores during autumn and winter, though 

 of course not numerous in the immediate vicinity of the town. 



WHIMBREL, Numenius phczopus (Linnasus). A regular spring and 

 autumn visitant, most numerous in August and September, at which 

 season, amongst the Liinicolce, it may certainly be regarded as one 



