206 STONE CURLEW, DOTTEREL, &C. [PART IT. 



last twenty years, the Stone Curlew, a bird of many 

 aliases, but recognisable as Bewick's Charadrius 

 cedicnemus, never failed to visit us during the 

 summer, confining himself principally to the 

 higher ground, where the plough had crept in 

 upon the central ridge of down which bisects 

 the Island. In common, however, with several 

 other species, this bird has almost ceased to visit 

 us, and until the year 1857, when three or four 

 were seen and two killed, several years had 

 elapsed since I had heard of the appearance of 

 one. It is long since I myself have heard their 

 wild whistle in the uplands. Of the Dotterel (Cha- 

 radrius morinellus) I have, to the best of my belief, 

 never met with above a single specimen in the 

 Island. The Ring Dotterel (Charadrius hiaticula 

 Vecticb "Bull-bird") occurs in considerable num- 

 bers, consorting with its friend the "Ox-bird" 

 (Tringa variabilis) along the muddy flats and 

 harbours on the western part of the north coast. 

 I believe I may also undertake to say positively 

 that I have in the same locality killed, when a boy, 

 several specimens of the Grey Plover (Squaterola 

 cinerea, Yarrell). I then imagined them to have 

 been Golden Plover (Charadrius pluvialis), but 

 have since been satisfied that I was mistaken. I 



