510 Chardtlrius minor, a British Bird? 



frequently in Suffolk, at night, the note of tne same species of 

 bird, be the species what it may.] After the severe thunder 

 storm which fell at Clapton on the evening of June 14. 1834, 

 I was walking in the garden, about 10 o'clock; and I distinctly 

 heard the single and often-repeated note of this heron: it 

 sounds like the word qua, qua, qua, as, I think, Selby remarks. 

 As the bird flies slowly, the note may, on a still evening, be 

 heard for a long time. Hail, of a remarkably large size, accom- 

 panied this storm, and much mischief was done in this neigh- 

 bourhood, in the gardens, to the hand-lights and green-houses. 

 - — 0. Clapton, February, 1835. 



\Charddrius minor ; the Accuracy of deeming it a Bird of 

 Britain questioned, with Reasons.'] — Mr. Gould, in the 11th 

 part of his beautiful work on the birds of Europe, has given us 

 drawings of the Charadrius minor, or little ringed dottrell, as 

 a new acquisition to the list of British birds, on the authority 

 of Mr. Doubleday of Epping. It is stated that a very young 

 specimen of that species has been procured on the east of 

 Sussex ; but, upon careful attention, I think it may well be 

 doubted if this idea is well founded. The characters given 

 to distinguish it are, flesh-coloured legs, a black bill, and a 

 white rump. The first of these characters at once proves it 

 to be distinct from the Kentish plover, but not from the com- 

 mon ring dottrell ; neither does the colour of the bill, as I 

 have no hesitation in saying that birds of the latter species 

 invariably have their bills black in early life. There remains, 

 then, only the white rump as a character to mark it ; but, on 

 looking at Mr. Gould's drawing, which, I have no doubt, 

 is an accurate portrait of the bird sent to him, I find that it 

 has not the white rump which distinguishes the old bird, fi- 

 gured in the same plate. As this bird, therefore, has all the 

 characters that belong to the young of the common ring dot- 

 trell, and has not the one which we should expect to find in 

 the young of the C. minor, I have great reason to think that 

 it is nothing but the young of the former species, and that the 

 latter is, therefore, unknown in this country. Though I am 

 not acquainted with the fact, yet I have no doubt that the 

 young of the C. minor will be found to have the white rump, 

 like the old one : if not, it exhibits a change of plumage which 

 I do not remember to have before noticed. — Arthur Strickland, 

 Bridlington Quay, June 10. 1835. 



A Tippet Grebe was shot on Diss Mere, Norfolk, by Mr. 

 B. Barrett, landlord of the Cross Keys public-house in Mere 

 Street ; the date " last week," in the Bury and Sitffiblk Herald 

 for July 30. 1834. 



The Peregrine Falcon, a fine individual of, was shot, early 



