232 GLAREOLID^. 



Museum, of a specimen which was shot near Ormskirk, in 

 Lancashire : in October, 1809, according to Graves, but 

 respecting this and another example, Bullock himself 

 writes as follows (Trans. Linn. Soc. xi. p. 177) : — 



" The j&rst instance of this bird having been killed in 

 Britain occurred in 1807, when one was shot in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Ormskirk, in Lancashire : it was preserved by 

 Mr. J. Sherlock, of that place, from whom I purchased it 

 a few days afterwards.* On the 16th of August last [1812] 



I killed another specimen of this bird in the Isle of Unst, 

 about three miles from the northern extremity of Britain. 

 When I first discovered it, it rose within a few feet and flew 

 round me in the manner of a Swallow, and then alighted 

 close to the head of a cow that was tethered within ten 

 yards' distance. After examining it a few minutes, I 

 returned to the house of T. Edmondson, Esq., for my gun, 

 and, accompanied by that gentleman's brother, went in 

 search of it. After a short time it came out of some 

 growing corn, and was catching insects at the time I fired ; 

 and, being only wounded in the wing, we had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining it alive. In the form of its bill, wings, 

 and tail, as well as its mode of flight, it greatly resembles 

 the genus Hirundo ; but, contrary to the whole of this 

 family, the legs were long, and bare above the knee, agree- 

 ing with Tringa ; and, like the Sandpipers, it ran with the 

 greatest rapidity when on the ground, or in shallow water, 

 in pursuit of its food, which was wholly of flies, of which 

 its stomach was full. It was a male, and weighed 2 oz. 



II dwt." 



The bird killed near Ormskirk was in the collection of 

 the late Earl of Derby. The other remained in Mr. Bul- 

 lock's possession till the sale of the contents of his museum 

 in 1819 ; when the Author finds, by a reference to his 

 priced catalogue, that this specimen from Shetland produced 

 £S. 8s., and was transferred to the British Museum. 



Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Safi"ron Walden, sent word to the 



* Montagu, apparently alluding to the same specimen, states tbat it was 

 shot on ISth May, 1804 ! 



