260 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



— The Black Kite is not indigenous in the British Islands ; yet, as 

 Mr. Gould observes, "judging from its extraordinary powers of 

 flight, and from the wandering habits of the generality of the Fal- 

 conidae, it is not improbable that it may have penetrated so far west 

 as our island, and have been mistaken for the common species." It 

 is abundantly distributed over Germany, France, Switzerland, and the 

 European countries bordering the Mediterranean sea. 



Bar-tailed Godwit, Limosa rufa, Briss. — Barge rousse, Fr. — 

 Rostbrauner wasserlaufer, G. We do not admire this plate. The 

 bird in its summer dress is badly drawn, and the perspective utterly 

 wrong ; indeed there is no perspective at all. The bird in question 

 is standing on a bank, apparently at a very considerable distance, and 

 dipping its bill in a piece of water, not close to the brink, but half-a- 

 mile out, or nearly so : while on another bank, a good bow-shot (in 

 true perspective) beyond the first, stands a bird in its winter dress, 

 rather larger than the bird in its summer dress. Both are stated to 

 be of the natural size, yet they are on a distant landscape. If our 

 readers consult the plate, they will not think us hypercritical. How- 

 ever, in the midst of so much to admire, we may well pardon worse 

 faults : indeed, it is because the plates in general are so beautiful 

 that a faulty one is the more startling. In other works, this very 

 plate would be deemed good. — The native haunts of the Bar-tailed 

 Godwit are the high northern regions of Europe, whence it migrates 

 southwards in autumn, and whither it returns in spring. It visits our 

 island during its vernal and autumnal travels, and some few individu- 

 als sojourn with us during the winter, tenanting the mouths of rivers, 

 creeks, low muddy shores, and marshes along the coast. Its sum- 

 mer plumage is rufous varied with brown ; in winter its dress is grey 

 pencilled and dashed with dusky brown. In Holland, this species 

 abounds in winter, and also on the coast of some parts of France. 

 From the former country our markets are supplied with these and 

 other waders during the winter season. Its parallel on the American 

 continent is the Limosa Fedoa, Vieill. — Aud. plate 238. The Li- 

 mosa Hudsonica there represents our Black-tailed Godwit, L- mela- 

 rwra. 



Alpine Accentor, Accentor Alpinus, Bechst. — Accenteur pegol, 

 ou des Alpes, Fr. — Alpen fluevogel, G. Of the genus, Accentor, 

 three species are European ; namely, A. Alpinus, A. modularis, 

 and A. montanellus. An undescribed species, Mr. Gould observes, 

 inhabits the Himalayan mountains ; none are American. The present 

 plate presents two figures of the Alpine Accentor, of the natural size. 



