JEANS ON BRITISH BIUDH. 291 



Pratincole. — One was said to have been seen at Tetney in the win- 

 ter of 1840, by a pupil of mine, F, Holt, but I cannot answer for it. His 

 descrii^tion answered to the habits of the bird. 



Turnstone. — I saw a pair at Cleethorpo in the spring of 1853. They 

 were on the shore by the cliff, and my impression at the time was that 

 they h:id paired but without meaning to nest there. 



Bittern. — I have met with this bird at Sunbury, on the Thames 

 (Middlesex) ; at Egham, Surrey ; where one shot by a tailor named Weeks 

 split open a bargeman's head who tried to get it for him ; and probably if 

 the bargeman had not slipped on the ice and stumbled at the moment, 

 the beak of the bird would have gone into his eye and perhaps pierced the 

 brain and killed him. At Marshchapel (near Tetney) a man shot one 

 as it was sitting on the sail of a windmill. Occurs also at Tetney. 



Curlew. — Breeds everywhere on the Lincolnshire coast. I have had 

 the young brought me at Tetney. I have seen them at Mablethorpe, and 

 they are now breeding at Wainfleet. 



Whimbrel. — This bird is called Titterel (from its note) all along the 

 south coast, from Sussex to Devonshire. 



Redshank. — Four pairs used regularly to breed at Tetney, in one 

 marsh. 



Wood Sandpiper. — Two pairs used to build at Tetney; where I have 

 shot three of the birds. A pair used to breed here at Alford when I first 

 came, nine years ago, but I have not seen them of late years. In both 

 places they rather affected the shelter of the low coppices where the 

 stream ran through them. 



Greenshank. — I shot one about 1841 which is now in the possession 

 of K. Thorold, Esq., of Wulsby Hall. 



Ruff. — I never but once saw these birds in Lincolnshire, and that 

 was in 1853, when I saw several flocks in the autumn. 



Brown Snipe. — When a boy I three times tried to shoot one on the 

 shingle of Hurst Castle but the flint gun missed fire each time, when the 

 Rev. John Scobell (now prebendary of Chichester) came up and shot it 

 over my shoulder to my intense disgust. My pupil, F. Holt, in returning 

 from Holland in the " Batavier" in 1839 caught one that flew on to the deck. 



Dunlin. — Is called Summer Snipe all up the Thames, I have shot 

 them in the summer, at Sunbury, Egham, Windsor, Oxford, &c. 



CTo he Continued.) 



