1854 J Bar tram's Sandpiper in England. 37 



flower in the garden, but have hardly yet reached their full 

 bloom. How different here from when I walked through 

 Centurion's Copse last January, detecting the earliest of 

 adventurous daffodils and other forerunners of spring." 



The note immediately following the above points to 

 another kind of reminiscence : 



No doubt the Zygaena minos, in this month's " Zoologist," is the 

 very same insect I took at Castle Taylor in June, 1851, when I remarked 

 that it appeared a fortnight earlier than the Common Burnet. The pair 

 Reid showed me are the exact counterpart of mine, only I think what I 



caught were rather fresher. What a pity persuaded me they were 



only a suffused variety ! 



The Mr. Reid referred to in the entry just quoted was 

 a well-known Doncaster bird-stuffer, whose skill in setting 

 up specimens had many years previously elicited a com- 

 plimentary letter from Charles Waterton. Mr. More had 

 many conversations with him, and was glad of the oppor- 

 tunity to probe an ornithological question which had 

 remained a more or less open puzzle for over two years. In 

 the "Zoologist" for 1851, Mr. Reid had described (p. 3330) 

 a Sandpiper, whose name was unknown to him, but of 

 which he had received a British-killed specimen for mount- 

 ing from a locality so far inland as Warwick.* No corre- 

 spondent of the "Zoologist" had grappled with the mystery; 

 and Mr. More, suspecting it to be the American " Bar- 

 tram's Sandpiper," made a point, when visiting Mr. Reid, 

 of ascertaining all details. In his Journal for January 28th 

 he mentions the outcome. " Next, as to the Warrington 

 Sandpiper. It seems I was quite right in saying it was 

 Totanus bartramii, and the bird is * now in possession of 

 J. B. Barnard, Esq., of Kenniton Hall, near Warwick, who 

 received it from a labourer who had shot it in a bean- 

 stubble.' Another instance of the long flight of which 

 these strong-winged tribe are capable, and one which fully 

 entitles the bird to rank as British, especially as we already 

 have enrolled so many other American deserters. I wonder 

 \vhether it is known to the London men that this is a bona 

 fide case of * British-killed.' " He sent a note to the 



* Misprinted Warrington in the original announcement. 



