it will require more than I have yet seen to convince me I am 

 wrong. Any number of probabilities do not establish a fact. The 

 short time the Green Sandpiper* is absent breeding, and per- 

 haps a straggler or two remaining during May or June, may have 

 led some to arrive at the conclusion it breeds here. Mr. Lub- 

 bock, a most careful observer, in his book on Norfolk birds pub- 

 lished in 1848, mentions "a certain stream which will furnish 

 one or two of these birds at almost every time of the year." 

 Surely nearly thirty years should have proved if it did breed 

 with us. Mr. Cordeaux quotes someone else about the young 

 being quite a different colour from the old birds "much 

 lighter;" whereas the young are darker than the old birds in 

 summer, and what he says about the gamekeeper having seen 

 them come off from the crows' nests is not reliable. The keeper 

 who knows the bird, probably also knows that there are persons 

 who would give a very long price for authentic British-taken 

 eggs. This probably would have induced him to find them if he 

 could, and his taking them would have been a slight offence in 

 comparison to having settled the fact of the birds breeding in 

 England. No other account that I have seen is more definite or 

 reliable. I have only seen this bird twice in April, often in 

 August (young birds, with one exception), and I once killed one 

 in February. Though I have often seen them, I never saw two 

 rise together ; they are very local, and, although two or three 

 may be on the same stream or pool, they are generally quite 

 apart, and they rise so soon as ever they see you, which is al- 

 most before you can see them. 



Amongst the list I sent of birds not breeding in England was 

 what I called the Common God wit, or " Speathe" of our coast, 

 and by which I mean the Bar-Tailed or Eed Godwit of some 

 authors, but which has not always a barred tail, nor is always 

 re d both incorrect names. Now, excepting the lateness of this 

 bird's northern migration, little has been said about its having 



* Even supposing a bird like the Green Sandpiper has ever bred in Eng- 

 landthe eggs or unfledged young do not appear ever to have been destroyed 

 by man the bird has not become more common. Is it expected to do so by 

 protection V I say no ! 



