55 



SPOTTED REDSHANKS, ETC. 



(Reprinted from " The Field" Newspaper, June'lth, 1862.) 



I AM obliged to Mr. Fielding Harmer and J. P. (Great Yar- 

 mouth) for the information about Spotted Redshanks, Green- 

 shanks, and Eared Grebes. Perhaps Mr. Harmer would say (not 

 for my information only) whether the Spotted Redshank has been 

 observed before this year at this season, or at any other. So 

 many persons are now paying attention to the habits of birds, 

 and know the species in their various plumages, rare birds are 

 not often overlooked. Punt-guns also reach many birds which 

 could scarcely otherwise be approached. It did not occur to me 

 that the birds might be killed from punts. On the 30th of April, 

 1860, a fisherman at Cullercoats killed a female Horned Grebe in 

 summer plumage. It was alone; the eggs in it were considerably 

 enlarged. Being common in Iceland, where it breeds, it might 

 have been on its road there. The eggs in many female birds killed 

 from flocks during the spring migration are often a good deal en- 

 larged, though the birds are far from their breeding grounds. It 

 is curious why some species of shore birds which winter with us 

 commonly, those which have wintered, appear to leave us as soon 

 as mild weather comes, and before getting any of their summer 

 plumage, whilst in the month of May flocks of the same species 

 appear at particular places in various states of plumage between 

 winter and summer, many in complete summer plumage, on their 

 way to their breeding places. One would suppose that had these 

 birds spent the winter further south, they would have migrated 

 as early as those which wintered with us : it is difficult to under- 

 stand the migration of birds. Some persons imagine that killing 

 a rare migratory bird prevents the species becoming more 

 commonly met with : this may be so in some cases, but it is not 

 in all. The Pigmy Curlew, for instance, comes during September 

 in flocks entirely composed of young birds of the year; some 

 years more rarely than in others, no old birds accompanying 

 them. They seem not to be able to bear the cold, as by the end 

 of thft month or the first week in October all have gone again, 



