WOOD SANDPIPER. 227 



course in spring and autumn. At such times, also, in 

 company with other migratory waders, it is usually met 

 with in close vicinity to the coast, and a very large 

 proportion of the specimens procured in Norfolk have 

 been killed on Breydon. The very few records of 

 this bird by earlier local authors is attributable in 

 some degree, no doubt, to the fact that until of late 

 years the marked difference of plumage between the 

 wood and green sandpipers was but little understood. 

 Yet, though probably never common, even as a migrant, 

 this species is becoming more and more scarce in this 

 county, as will be seen by the subjoined list of recorded 

 specimens or such as have come under my own imme- 

 diate notice. This growing rarity may perhaps be 

 owing to the constant increase of drainage in many 

 parts of the opposite shores of Holland where, within 

 a few years, it bred numerously. 



Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear omit this species 

 altogether from their List of the birds of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk; and a pair killed at Yarmouth in the spring 

 of 1833* are the only ones mentioned by the Messrs. 

 Paget. Mr. Hunt speaks of two or three examples as 

 having been killed at Yarmouth. A young bird figured 

 by Messrs. Gurney and Fisher in the " Zoologist " for 

 1846 (p. 1324), which, together with an adult female 

 shot at the same time, is now in Mr. J. H. Gurney's 

 collection, was killed in a marsh, at Beechamwell, many 

 years ago during the summer months, by Mr. Scales, 

 of bustard celebrity. This youngster "not having 

 entirely lost its down," and being " evidently not suffi- 

 ciently feathered to have crossed the sea," was naturally 

 presumed "to have been hatched near the spot where 

 it was killed ;" and is the only instance in which the 



* These birds, according to Mr. J. Clarke, are still preserved in 

 the Saffron Walden Museum. 



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