BROWN SNIPE. 349 



learn from Mr. J. H. Gurney that a specimen of the 

 red-breasted snipe was killed near Yarmouth early in 

 October. Our informant adds that it was a male, and 

 had nearly completed its change from summer to the 

 winter plumage." This bird, which was formerly in 

 Mr. S. Miller's collection at Yarmouth is now in Mr. J. 

 H. Gurney's possession, together with another specimen 

 said to have been killed at Kunton, near Cromer, in 1840. 

 A recent examination, however, of the latter with the 

 testimony of the late Mr. John Sayer, of Norwich, who 

 stuffed it, leaves no doubt on my mind that it was origi- 

 nally set up from a skin, and in that condition, and not 

 in the "flesh," made its first appearance in Norfolk. In 

 fact, there appears to be as little authority for this speci- 

 men as for the spotted sandpiper before referred to, which 

 was said to have been killed at the same place and was 

 sold to Mr. Gurney by the same individual. In Mr. 

 G. E. Gray's "Catalogue of British Birds" in the 

 British Museum, two specimens are entered as forming 

 part of that collection Colonel Montagu's in winter 

 plumage from Devonshire, and one purchased in 1850, 

 marked " Norfolk, very young, from Mr. J. Baker's 

 collection." In the absence of any record of this nest- 

 ling in our natural history journals (although being in 

 immature plumage it would, as a genuine British 

 example, have been peculiarly interesting) I am inclined 

 to doubt altogether the locality assigned to it. The 

 Mr. Baker alluded to is, as I learn from Mr. Gray, "a 

 dealer in such articles," and on such authority alone 

 I cannot certainly include it as an authentic local 

 specimen. 



The last that I am aware of as killed in this county, 

 which is now in Mr. Rising's collection at Horsey, was 

 shot by himself, in his own marshes, on the 9th of 

 October, 1845, a male bird, changing from summer to 

 winter plumage, and which was in company with another 



