94 BIRDS. GRALL^. 



aa. Tndactyke. 

 h. Bill slender. 

 Calidris. 



hb. Bill strong. 



c. Bill compressed. 



d. Bill swollen at the end. 

 Charadrius. 

 Oidicnemus. 

 dd. Bill wedged shaped. 

 Hsematopus. 

 cc. Bill vaulted. 

 Otis. 



In no department of British Ornithology does there exist so 

 much confusion as among the Grallae, in reference to native 

 species. Numerous stragglers, both from America and Europe, 

 have been enrolled in our systematical catalogues as British 

 subjects. Several species, which were formerly natives, but 

 which, by the influence of civihzation, have been reduced to 

 the rank of stragglers, still maintain their place as citizens, as if 

 their geographical distribution had experienced no check. It 

 is surely time to reduce these redundancies, and exhibit our list 

 of native birds freed as much as possible from foreigners. Un- 

 der the influence of these feelings, I judge it unnecessary to de- 

 scribe formally the two following species. 



1, Glareola torquata. Austrian Pratincole. {Temm. Orn. ii. 500.) — This 

 species, which may be readily distinguished from the other British Grallae, 

 by its remarkably wide mouth, has twice occurred in this country. The 

 first was shot near Ormskirk, in Lancashire, in 1807, and is now m the collec- 

 tion of Lord Stanley. The second was killed by Mr Bullock in Unst, the 

 most northerly of the Zetland Isles, on the 13th August 1812. — See Mont. 

 Orn. Diet. Suppt. and Lin. Ti-ans. ix. 198, Bullock, Lin. Trans, xi. 177' 



2. Platea Leucorodia. Common Spoonbill. {Tcmm. Orn. ii. 595.) — The 

 thin, flat, enlarged extremity of the bill, is an obvious distinguishing mark of 

 the species. It was first recorded by Merret, (Pinax 181.) on the authority of 

 Turner, as inhabiting Lincolnshii-e ; and by Sihbald, (Scot. lU. 18.) as an acci- 

 dental visitant of Scotland. He states (Auct. Mus. Balf. 195.) having re- 

 ceived it from Orkney. It has since been noticed by Pennant (Brit. Zool. ii. 

 634.) as migrating, in a flock, into the marshes near Yarmouth, in Norfolk, in 

 April 1774. — Pulteney, (Dorset Cat. 14.) records it as accidentally a visitant of 

 Tior&eishn-e.— Montagu (Ora. Diet. Sujip.) mentions one shot in March, and 

 another in November, at King's-Bridge, Devonshire. It has likewise been 

 shot in Zetland. 



