18 GREAT PLOTEE. 



In Ireland one was procured in the county of Waterford, and 

 one in the county of Wexford, which was shot near Growtown, 

 by Travers Hawkshaw, Esq., of Hilburn House. 



The Thick-knee haunts wide open spaces, commons, warrens, 

 heaths, sandy flats, such as chiefly border upon the sea coast, 

 uncultivated wastes, and sheep-walks, seeming to prefer districts 

 where the soil is poor, and in default of these, the larger 

 fields, fallows, and turnip grounds. 



This fine bird I have repeatedly seen on the top of the barren 

 hill between Lyme Regis and Charrnouth, Dorsetshire. Many 

 a 'stalk,' when a boy, have I had after him, but he always 

 managed to out-general me by keeping his sentry-box in the 

 middle of the open field, or resorting to that vantage-ground 

 on the least symptom of danger. 



The Rev. R. P. Alington tells me that it used to be common 

 near Swinhope, in Lincolnshire, as it was in other parts of 

 that county, but that it has become much more rare from the 

 enclosing of the country. A nest was taken in 1852, in Kingly 

 Vale, near Chichester, Sussex, as I am informed by Mr. George 

 Jackson, of that place. It is not uncommon in that county, 

 as also in Hampshire, about Selborne; Kent, Essex, Suffolk, 

 Worcestershire, and Cambridgeshire,--- the last-named only 

 occasionally. The Rev. Dr. Thackeray obtained a young one 

 bred near Cambridge. In some parts of Surrey they are not 

 uncommon. 



One was obtained close to the town of Cambridge, in October, 

 1853, as Thomas George Bonney, Esq., of St. John's College, 

 informs me. Several have been obtained in the winter months 

 in the Land's End district, in Cornwall, one in the beginning 

 of February near Falmouth, and one at the Land's End, in 

 January, 1848; one nearPenzance, about the 24th. of December, 

 1844. In Leicestershire, James Harley, Esq., of Leicester, 

 writes me word that it is a regular summer visitant, but only 

 very locally distributed, namely, on the north-east side of the 

 county, abutting on Lincolnshire. 



Birds of passage, they arrive here in March and April, or 

 the beginning of May; and depart again usually by the end 

 of September or October, in flocks of as many as forty or 

 fifty, but some few continue longer. They repair to the same 

 spot annually: they migrate by night. One was shot the first 

 week in February, 1852, as Mr. F. W. Stears has informed 

 me, at Roos, in Holderness; and in the same month, in 1807, 

 one was killed in Devonshire, as recorded by Montagu; the 



