30 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



one occasion, but it would take too long to narrate 

 the shifts and expedients of concealment I had to 

 resort to to get my specimens. Some of these are 

 now in the Perth Museum, and others in my own 

 collection. In the course of twenty-five years I 

 killed every British bird that it is possible to obtain 

 in our islands, beyond rare visitors, with the excep- 

 tion of the Curlew Sandpiper in full breeding 

 plumage. That is a great rarity, and I only once 

 saw one. He accompanied a flock of Sanderlings on 

 the south side of Tresco, Scilly, in May 1904. By 

 permission of Mr. Dorrien- Smith I was hunting for 

 some new rarities for his collection when I saw the 

 bird in question. He was terribly shy, and after 

 waiting for two days I noted a sandspit where he, 

 with accompanying Sanderlings, rested at high 

 water. The place was just within a long shot of 

 some sand dunes, where I lay concealed for two hours. 

 At last the tide drove the birds towards me, and I 

 was just preparing to take my shot when an 

 abominable naval gun, recently mounted at St. 

 Mary's, went off, and put every bird to wing in the 

 whole of the islands. The Sanderlings only flew 

 along the coast, but my beautiful Curlew Sand- 

 piper, blood-red in colour, soared straight up into 

 the clouds, and headed for his home in Siberia. I 

 never saw him again. 



