436 MEROPID^E. 



probably were observed at the same spot in the following 

 October (Trans. Linn. Soc. iii. p. 333). The specimen was 

 figured by Lewin (Br. B. pi. 43), whose plate is dated 

 "Nov. 7, 1793," and, having been given by Smith to Lord 

 Derby, is now with the rest of his collection at Liverpool, as 

 its curator Mr. T. J. Moore believes. Since that year the 

 species has been obtained more than thirty times in Great 

 Britain and four times in Ireland ; but as particulars of its 

 several occurrences, including that just mentioned, have often 

 been erroneously given*, it seems expedient to recite them 

 in detail. Taking the maritime counties and beginning in 

 the wesj, Drew states (Hist. Cornwall, i. p. 585) that four 

 were seen, and two shot, at Madern near the Land's End in 

 1807 ; while, according to Couch, and Bellamy (Nat. Hist. 

 South Devon, p. 202), a flock of twelve, of which eleven were 

 shot, was observed near Helston in the same county in May, 

 1828. In Devon Dr. Moore in 1837 wrote (Mag. Nat. Hist, 

 ser. 2, i. p. 180) that one was shot at Leigham in April 

 1818, another at Ivybridge in 1822, and that a third was in 

 Mr. Howe's collection ; while Mr. Nicholls records (Zool. 

 p. 6143) a male killed at Kingsbridge in May, 1858. One 

 was shot at Chideock, in Dorset, and preserved in the 

 Bridport Museum, as stated in the first Edition of this work.f 

 In the Isle of Wight one is said (Zool. p. 4870 ; Nat. 1855, 

 p. 264) to have been obtained near Freshwater in June 

 1855. In Sussex Mr. Knox mentions one shot at Chichester, 

 May 6th, 1829 ; and Mr. Ellman in 1850 recorded (Zool. 

 p. 2953) one killed at Icklesham, now in Mr. Borrer's 

 collection. As regards Kent, the bird here figured was shot 

 at Kingsgate in May 1827, and another, killed at Lydd, was 

 in 1844 in Dr. Plomley's collection (Zool. p. 623). In 

 Essex one was killed about midsummer, 1854, at Feeting 



* This will be found on examination to be especially the case with Mr. 

 Morris's long list, a large proportion of the notices applied by him to the Bee- 

 eater having really reference to the Hoopoe, as is plain on comparing the details 

 furnished of that bird in former Editions of the present work and by Mr. Knox, 

 whence they appear to have been copied, and the extracts misplaced. 



t The example then said, on Heysham's authority, to have been shot at 

 Christchurch in 1839, was, as Mr. Borrer informs the Editor, a foreign specimen. 



