234 TRINGA TEMMINCKIL 



history of it could bo made up from analogies, ornithologists 

 are obliged to confine themselves to facts, and thus are 

 sometimes accused by popular writers of a decided want of 

 imagination. These people are ignorant of the use of that 

 faculty, which, however, may be applied with advantage to 

 every branch of natural history, though certainly not in 

 supplying the lack of observed facts. 



Specimens have been obtained in Cornwall, Devonshire, 

 and here and there all along the eastern coast of England as 

 far north as Yorkshire ; and Mr. Heysham, of Carlisle, 

 states their occurrence in Rock-cliff salt marsh. Scotland 

 has hitherto yielded none, and, according to Mr. Thompson, 

 Ireland as yet boasts of only one, " shot by W. Purdon, Esq., 

 at a fresh-water pool close to the town of Tralee, and the 

 one bird only was seen." 



