184 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



Bar-Tailed Godwit, Limosa lapponica (Linn.). — Fairly common 

 some seasons and in others rare. It is most frequent in the 

 three autumn months, but an odd bird occurs now and 

 then till the end of February. Sixteen is the largest group 

 I have seen together. 



Common Curlew. Numenius arquata (lAnn.). — A very abundant 

 species from autumn to spring. During August and 

 September they go inland at high water, and begin to 

 return to the flats about two hours after the beginning of 

 the ebb, flighting down in flocks from twenty to one 

 hundred strong. As nearly all use the same route, it is 

 possible at this season to form an estimate of their numbers. 

 After observing them closely for the last seven years, I 

 would say that the average autumn Curlew population of 

 the Fairlie sands is between six and seven hundred indi- 

 viduals. After October they do not go inland so much, 

 and it is therefore not so easy to judge what the winter 

 population is. From this change of habit, and their 

 perceptibly increased tameness in this month, when they 

 will fly over certain parts which, owing to the attentions of 

 the shore-shooters, were shunned weeks before, I believe 

 that the birds present in autumn depart about the middle 

 of this month (October), and are replaced by others from the 

 north. Curlews seem to depend on their great powers of 

 sight for their protection, and not on any sense of smell. 

 One very hot day in August, a Curlew alighted, and com- 

 menced to bathe itself in a pool of water, within three feet of 

 a stone butt within which I was concealed ; and although 

 I watched it for nearly ten minutes ducking its breast in 

 the water, and allowing the latter to trickle over its 

 shoulders, it was not until I showed myself that a much- 

 startled Curlew flew shrieking away. 



Whimbrel, Numenius phceovus (Linn.). — A few are seen up till 

 October every year, generally solitary birds. They appear 

 with great regularity in the first week of August. 



Common Tern, Sterna Jluviatilis, Naumann. — Common in flocks 

 in August and the first half of September. Though con- 

 stantly on the outlook for its near relative, the Arctic Tern, 

 I have not yet managed to identify it here. 



