SCOLOPACID®. A381 
This bird seems to have been overlooked by 
Bewick; but Montagu notices it as having been 
killed near Bridgwater as long ago as 1807: later 
instances are probably more numerous: two in my 
own collection were killed, one on Stert Island, at 
the mouth of the river Parret, and the other on the 
shore between that place and Stogursey; two also, 
in Mr. Haddon’s collection, were killed at the same 
place. No doubt many other specimens have oc- 
curred from time to time, although our coast does 
not quite agree with the habits of the bird, as it 
prefers a rocky rather than a muddy coast: there 
are, however, here and there low rocky ridges 
running out into the sea, and also some rough 
shingly places, in both of which places it seeks its 
food. I have also found it on the same sort of 
place on the south coast of Devon, at Exmouth. It 
runs quite close down to the sea in its search for 
food, and when caught by a larger wave than usual 
it crouches away from it, holding firmly on to the 
rock and allowing the spray to dash completely over 
it;* on the receding of the wave it rises and runs 
about nimbly till the approach of the next. In the 
situations in which I have seen it feeding it must 
occasionally have recourse either to swimming or 
flying to avoid the run of the sea or to regain its 
* See note by Mr. Gatcombe in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 
1866 (Second Series, p. 96). 
