BIRDS 



211. Great Snipe. Gallinago major (J. F. 



Gmelin) 

 The solitary snipe, as this bird is often 

 called, is an autumnal visitant usually appear- 

 ing in August and September, but never 

 remaining through the winter and very rarely 

 occurring in spring. Mr. Bunn of Lowestoft 

 has more than once picked up a specimen in 

 the game shops there, and dozens have 

 doubtless been shot and eaten. Mr. Hele 

 once shot in the dusk at something running 

 on the ground in the marshes just south of 

 Aldeburgh and picked up a great snipe. 



212. Common Snipe. Gallinago cailestis 



(Frenzel) 

 A resident which sometimes has eggs in 

 March. Many of the early nests are de- 

 stroyed when the meadows are rolled, but the 

 hen soon lays again, and the same bird has 

 been known to lay three full clutches of four 

 eggs in a season. The fresh eggs are often 

 very handsomely marked but vary a good 

 deal both in size and colour. A clutch of 

 iive was found at Tostock on 28 May, 1892, 

 from which the bird was flushed, and a sitting 

 snipe will sometimes almost allow herself to 

 be trodden on. The birds which breed as 

 they do in suitable places all over the county 

 return to the same haunts with great regu- 

 larity, and their arrival is soon announced by 

 the ' drumming ' of the cock, which is some- 

 times heard quite late in the evening when 

 the Easter moon is at the full. Many come 

 as winter migrants, and one at least has been 

 k^illed by striking the Orford lighthouse. 



213. Jack Snipe. Gallinago gallinula (Linn.) 

 This is the smallest and by far the hand- 

 somest of the British snipe and is a winter 

 migrant arriving in September and leaving in 

 March or April. Its nest has never been 

 found in the British Islands. 



214. Broad-billed Sandpiper. Limicola platy- 



rhyncha (Temminck) 

 A very rare visitant from north-eastern 

 Europe which has been obtained on Breydon 

 three times in spring and once in autumn. 



215. Pectoral Sandpiper. 

 Vieillot. 



Tringa maculata. 



This rare visitant from the other side of 

 the Atlantic has been shot four times near 

 Aldeburgh and always in the autumn. One 

 shot by Mr. Hele is in the Ipswich Museum, 

 and another shot by the present writer in 

 Thorpe Mere 14 September, 1872, was re- 

 corded in the Zoologist for that year (p. 3307) 

 as follows : ' To-day I was lucky enough to 



shoot a pectoral sandpiper in the north mere. 

 Three birds skimmed past me within a 

 longish shot and I shot at them and killed 

 this one, thinking that they were curlew- 

 sandpipers. It is evidently a bird of the year 

 from the light-coloured margins to the feathers ; 

 the sex I could not ascertain with certainty 

 owing to the shot marks. The legs and base 

 of lower mandible were light yellowish brown 

 and irides dark brown ; the body was loaded 

 with fat. The wind had been blowing 

 rather freely from the west for some days and 

 I fancy that this bird must have been blown 

 over to the coast of Norway or Iceland, and 

 then have joined a flock of knots or curlew- 

 sandpipers on their way southward.' 



216. Siberian Pectoral Sandpiper. Tringa 



acuminata (Horsfield) 

 This is the old world representative of the 

 last-named species, and recently added to the 

 British list, a specimen having been shot on 

 Breydon 29 August, 1892, of which full 

 details are given in the Zoologist for 1892 (pp. 

 356-8). 



217. Dunlin. Tringa alpina, Linn. 

 Locally, Oxbird. 



The commonest wader on the coast but 

 never breeding in Suffolk, though it does so 

 regularly in many English counties. The 

 young birds arrive quite early in August and 

 in winter it is sometimes seen in great flocks. 



2 1 8. Little Stint. Tringa minuta, Leisler. 



A spring and autumn migrant sometimes 

 rather common. When curlew-sandpipers 

 are abundant this species usually comes in fair 

 numbers, but never in large flocks, and in 

 spring it is always rare. 



219. Temminck's Stint. Tringa temmincki, 



Leisler. 

 Also a spring and autumn migrant, rarer 

 than the little stint. In plumage it much 

 resembles the common sandpiper and has 

 yellowish legs, those of the little stint being 

 black. 



220. Curlew-Sandpiper. Tringa subarquata 



(Guldenstadt) 

 This species is sometimes common enough 

 in autumn, when as many as six have been 

 killed at a shot in the Aldeburgh meres. In 

 the handsome summer dress, which resembles 

 that of the knot at the same season, it is much 

 rarer, but a good many have been obtained 

 both on Breydon and near Aldeburgh. The 

 long down-curved bill from which the name 

 is derived enables it to be recognized in any 



207 



