NOTES. 249 



a light-coloured speck. In the old birds this speck is wanting. 

 It is believed that this distinction is constant. The same 

 feather in the old bird is more rounded than in the young, 

 although this characteristic is not nearly so apparent as in 

 the Grey Partridge. I have never handled a Red-legged 

 Partridge after the shooting season, and cannot say if the 

 spot mentioned above is lost by abrasion or not. 



Heatley Noble. 



GREEN SANDPIPER IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



If the Green Sandpiper {Totanus ochropus) is rare in the west 

 of Scotland, it may be worth recording that on June 24th, 

 1910, I had a good view of one on the rocks below the hotel 

 at Rhiconich, Sutherlandshire. H. G. Alexander. 



[The Green Sandpiper has very rarely been recorded in the 

 north of the Scottish mainland, although it has been noted 

 as a fairly regular migrant in Fair Isle during the last few 

 years. — Eds.] 



BLACK-TAILED GODWIT IN NORTH 



LANCASHIRE. 



On December 9th, 1911, I saw in the flesh a Black-tailed 

 Godwit {Limosa belgica) which had been shot that morning 

 near Glasson Dock, at the mouth of the Lune, north Lan- 

 cashire, by a man named T. Lamb. 



The last time this bird was identified in north Lancashire 

 was on January 22nd, 1898, when a pair were shot in the 

 Lune Estuary, and passed into the possession of Mr. F. 

 Smalley. In Mitchell's Birds of Lancashire, the only records 

 are two shot near St. Michael' s-on-Wyre, the one a male on 

 September 23rd, 1873, and the other, which was one of 

 three seen, on September 12th, 1882, and another from the 

 Form by shore. 



I cannot agree with the statement made by the same 

 author on the authority of one man, a wildfowler in the 

 Lune Estuary — whom I have interviewed with unsatis- 

 factory results — to the effect that he sees the species there 

 every autumn in small numbers. The dates of the last two 

 records are interesting as being in mid- winter. 



I take it therefore that the above bird is only the fifth 

 record of the species for Lancashire, and also think I am right 

 in saying that this is the first time the 1898 specimens have 

 been recorded except in the local Press. 



The last specimen was a female, and almost adult. 



H. W. Robinson. 



