62 



of this class of birds than to those of the ordinary summer inland 

 migrants most of them inhabiting the sea shores, they are seen 

 by few persons only, and those, perhaps, scarcely knowing, or 

 caring to know, one bird from another; and notwithstanding 

 this, they are much more difficult to acquire any knowledge of 

 than the land birds, in consequence of their irregular appearance, 

 and the wonderful change that has often taken place in their ap- 

 parel during the time of their absence. In noticing the occur- 

 rence of the Eider Duck in Essex, your correspondent mentions 

 the bird as seldom seen in this country : it is abundant on many 

 parts of the north-eastern coast during winter as well as in sum- 

 mer. C. M. A. 



SCHINZ'S SANDPIPER. 



(Reprinted from " The Field" Newspaper, Dec. 26tk, 1863.) 



I AM sorry I am unable to comply with the " Old Bushman's" 

 request to send him a skin. A friend of his as well as mine 

 (whom he will probably recognize) some years ago had three 

 young birds of the year brought in a whale-ship from Greenland, 

 which were the first I ever saw. I never had a specimen, 

 doubting its right to a place as a British species, and not caring 

 to possess skins of which I knew nothing. I find Audubon ob- 

 serves that he met with the young of the year only at Labrador 

 in August, and he mentions having met with it further south 

 later in autumn and in winter. He omits all mention of a sum- 

 mer plumage, and does not describe the young. The winter 

 plumage, from birds killed in East Florida, he states to be mixed 

 with yellow on the back, and the scapulars with light red. Some 

 discrepancy appears here : the complete winter plumage of all 

 the nearly allied species is plain grey on the back. Macgillivniy 

 merely copies Audubon' s description. My reason for asking 

 about the summer plumage was purely for information. 1 was 

 not aware of its being a European species till the " Old Bush- 

 man" mentioned it, and afterwards said it was described by 



