MOORLAND BIRDS IN AUGUST 183 



Allgood tells me he meets with it almost every year in 

 September, on the boggy haughs of the Breamish, where 

 that stream flows out of the Cheviots. 



The wood - sandpiper (Totamis glareola) also passes 

 through at this season ; but I have never chanced to meet 

 with it, though knowing the bird well. It was this species, 

 with the reeve, shoveler, and others, that Mr Hancock 

 found nesting at Prestwick Carr, June 3rd, 1853, as 

 graphically described in his "Catalogue," but a few years 

 later, that marsh was drained ; and neither wood-sand- 

 piper nor reeve have nested in Northumberland since. 



On the coast, ruffs and reeves occur not uncommonly 

 on passage in August and September — all young. We 

 have shot several in Fenham slakes ; but have only one 

 note of a reeve occurring inland — on Coquet. Lord 

 William Percy informs me that he shot three young male 

 ruffs in August, 1905, on Alnwick moor, out of a flock 

 of sixteen, that flew close past in a thick mist. 



August 10 (1904). — A young cock pheasant (now 

 beginning to take the trees at night) was found killed 

 and partly eaten. The keeper blamed the owls. Not 

 to discourage him (but confident myself that a sparrow- 

 hawk was the culprit), I allowed a trap to be set. Next 

 morning, to my great distress, an adult tawny owl was 

 caught alongside the dead pheasant. This single "con- 

 viction" is recorded as it tends to show that such lapses 

 by owls are quite exceptional. I know of no other ; 

 and a second similar incident resulted in the capture of 

 a sparrow-hawk. Owls are, of course, birds of prey, and 

 liable to fall into temptation. Yet such lapses from 

 virtue are rare; and the temptations, be it remembered, 

 are great indeed, where hundreds of hand-reared game 

 are congregated in close proximity to the woods. Also 



