TO RUSSIA AND BACK. I9 



It seems a small adult bird, with the cheek spots quite white, and 

 also the throat, except the chin, which is black." 



My next move was to Calais, where, on the 28th of 

 October, I had a good opportunity of watching a Velvet 

 Scoter, which was swimming between the piers. I suspect 

 it had swum there purposely, as the next day there were 

 two, seemingly both females. They were diving in the 

 most unconcerned manner, but I know not whether they 

 were fishing, or whether they were trying to escape the 

 stones with which a gang of small street Arabs were pelting 

 them. A little flock of Purple Sandpipers proved even 

 more interesting than the Scoters. I was watching their 

 quaint actions at the edge of the water, when a man came 

 up and began to stone them also. Stoning seems a favourite 

 diversion of the French. Walking home I saw a Woodcock 

 flying wildly among the chimney tops. A Chaffinch was 

 shown me which had killed itself against the lighthouse, 

 a lofty structure which can be clearly seen from Dover. 

 A wire netting has been found necessary to protect the 

 lantern from the birds which dash against it. The keeper 

 showed me into a room where there were about eighty 

 species of birds set up, all of which he asserted had killed 

 themselves against that light. I can hardly credit it, al- 

 though he made the same assertion to my father, for there 

 were several which appeared to me most unlikely to be 

 obtained in such a way, e.g., Montague's Harrier, Rock 

 Thrush, Little Bittern, Avocet, Purple Heron, Red-necked 

 Grebe, (full breeding plumage,) Razorbill, and Gulls, The 

 story he told my father was that, in 1855 a Whooper 

 Swan flew against the lantern, and broke the glass and its 

 own wing. This was stuffed, and after that specimens of 

 all the species which killed themselves against the glass had 

 been preserved. The tickets testify that the collection has 

 been long finished. Of late years all the birds have gone 



