550 SCOLOPACID^. 



Summer Snipe, may be considered rather as a summer visiter, 

 but is most frequently seen and obtained about the periods of 

 their vernal and autumnal migi'ation, on their passage to and 

 from those northern localities in which they pass their breed- 

 ing season. They are to be found most frequently in the 

 London market towards the end of April and in May, their 

 plumage then exhibiting to some extent the darker streaks 

 and spots which mark their summer dress. In Ireland they 

 are seen in autumn, Mr. Thompson informs me, in very small 

 parties, but generally singly ; and they are recorded as having 

 been killed in autumn, and sometimes early in winter, in the 

 counties along the line of our southern coast. These birds 

 are occasionally met with in inland counties. Mr. Jesse sent 

 me notice of one that was killed near Ascot Heath, not far 

 from the house of Mr. Davis, the well known huntsman of 

 her Majesty"'s stag hounds ; and Rusticus has mentioned one 

 that was shot near Godalming. Specimens have also been 

 killed in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire. In the 

 vicinity of Carlisle, Mr. Heysham says that during the month 

 of August 1832, three or four of these birds were occasion- 

 ally seen on Brugh, and RockcliiF salt marshes, and on the 

 25th a young male and female were procured. These two 

 birds had been feeding upon Smelts and Shrimps. A third 

 specimen, which was killed about ten days earlier in the same 

 month, on the banks of the river Eden, near Botchardby, 

 had recently swallowed a bearded Loche. 



Mr. Macgillivray furnished the following notice of the 

 habits of the Greenshank as observed in the Hebrides to his 

 friend Mr. Audubon.* The Greenshank is seen in the outer 

 Hebrides early in spring, and generally departs in October, 

 although I have observed individuals there in November. 

 Previous to the commencement of the breeding season, and 

 after the young are fledged, it resorts to the shores of the sea, 

 * Ornithological Biograpliy, vol. iii. p. 483. 



