OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE IN 1906. 215 



the bird at all during my eight years' residence in the district, 

 but I have occasionally heard of small parties having been seen 

 in the Cohie Valley between Munden and Eickmansworth, by 

 observers more favourably placed than myself. It is worth 

 noting, too, that a similar conclusion holds good with regard to 

 the grey crow {Corvus cormx). Its presence is every year 

 reported by Mr. Headley and Mr. Vaughan, in the east of the 

 county ; last year one was reported from the St. Albans district 

 as a great rarity ; in the Watford district I have never seen it, 

 and I do not remember that a single instance of its appearance 

 here has ever been reported to me. As I have said, these 

 differences in the distribution of our birds over various parts of 

 the county are extremely interesting, and I wish that other 

 observers would make and supply me with notes, on similar 

 lines, with regard to other species. 



Common Snipe (Gallinago ccelestis). — It may be remembered 

 that last year I reported the nesting (for the first time 

 recorded in our ' Transactions ') of this species near Watford. 

 Though there were plenty of snipe about in the early months of 

 1906, I did not hear of a nest being found. The birds were 

 about here until nearly the end of April. During the cold 

 weather at the close of the year numbers of snipe came down the 

 river- valley, and during a walk on December 23rd I flushed no 

 less than 13 within a mile and a half of the town. 



The Sandpipers. — Thanks to the fact that I have been allowed 

 during 1906 to extend my observations over portions of the 

 district to which hitherto I have not had access, I have been 

 able to add two species of sandpiper to my list of birds seen in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of Watford. 



On the evening of May 7th I flushed a pair of common sand- 

 pipers (Totanus liypoleucus) , and though I have been familiar 

 with this bird in other counties for several years, I have never 

 before seen it in Herts. 



On November 18th I flushed from one of the ditches in the water- 

 meadows near Otterspool three birds that were totally strange 

 to me, and which from their general appearance, behaviour, and 

 manner of flight I thought very probably belonged to the Sand- 

 piper family. One very marked characteristic of the plumage 

 I could not help noticing, and this was a fine broadly-marked 

 band of pure white across the lower part of the back and also 

 across the expanded tail. It was very conspiciious indeed in 

 flight, and, as it happened, it was by means of this perfectly 

 characteristic featiu'e that I was subsequently able to decide 

 what the birds were. Upon mentioning the matter to Mr. G. M. 

 Mathews, of Watford, he very kindly allowed me to look 

 through his truly magnificent set of G-ould's ornithological 

 works, and on turning up the Sandpiper family we had no 

 difiiculty in identifying my new "find" as the green sandpiper 

 (Totanus ochropus), and, cui'iously enough, in spite of the fact 

 that I had never before seen the bird anywhere, nor heard of it 



