CURLEW SANDPIPER. 351 



" several of these birds have been killed at Yarmouth in 

 the autumn. One of them which was shot at that place 

 in the month of August, had a red breast, and was in 

 plumage similar to the one in a summer dress preserved 

 in the British Museum.* We have met with this 

 species on Pewit Island. It is more solitary than the 

 dunlin, not more than a pair being seen together; and 

 is a stupid t>ird, suffering a boat to approach close to it. 

 The legs of this bird, when fresh killed, are of a pale 

 green, but when dried they appear black." As with most 

 of our rare waders, more specimens have been procured 

 on Breydon than on any . other part of the coast, and 

 the late Mr. J. D. Hoy has recorded in the " Magazine 

 of Natural History" (new series, vol. i., p. 117), the 

 occurrence of several specimens in summer plumage, 

 near Yarmouth, in May, 1836. At Blakeney Mr. 

 Dowell describes them as "not very rare, occurring 

 for the most part singly amongst flocks of dunlins, 

 and are easily distinguishable by their gait and longer 

 bill and conspicuous white tail coverts." Examples 

 in the rich red plumage of the breeding season are occa- 

 sionally met with, either late in spring or on their return 

 from their breeding grounds at the close of the summer. 

 Mr. Gurney possesses a fine specimen in this plumage, 

 killed on Breydon; and Yarrell, who was well acquainted 

 with our Norfolk coast, says, " I have obtained this bird 

 in June, in the height of its summer plumage, from 

 Norfolk, and have seen the young from the same locality 

 early in July." There is, of course, no reason to 

 suppose that this species has ever remained to breed in 

 this county, and the young birds above referred to must, 



* A Norfolk specimen in winter plumage, presented by the 

 Rev. W. Whitear, is preserved amongst the British birds in the 

 British Museum, together with a Yarmouth specimen in summer 

 dress presented by Mr. C. Hubbard. 



