CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 205 



The Nook at Eye Harbour, on the Sussex coast, 

 was formerly one of their most favourite feeding- 

 grounds ; grass marshes, however, were preferred by 

 the owners of the land to sea- water mudbanks, and a 

 wall having been built, the tide was at last successfully 

 kept back. I happened, the first autumn after the 

 alteration, to be present, when a large mixed flock of 

 Pigmies and Stints, after wheeling round two or three 

 times, settled down among the sheep, which were now 

 the occupants of their former quarters ; after running 

 about in the grass for a time, apparently bewildered by 

 the alteration that had taken place in the nature of 

 the soil, they at last became acquainted with the state 

 of affairs, and uttering a shrill cry, the whole flock 

 took wing, evidently disgusted with the transformation 

 that had been effected. 



The specimens were obtained at Eye, in Sussex, in 

 September, 1858. 



WHIMBEEL. 



Case 277. 



A few pairs of these birds still breed in the wilder 

 parts of the north of Scotland, and on some of the 

 adjacent islands ; several of the localities, however, 

 that they formerly resorted to are entirely deserted. 



During spring and autumn considerable flocks may 

 be met with all round our coasts. 



The specimens in the case were shot at Eye, in 

 Sussex, in May, 1862. 



