206 BIRDS. 



Professor Newton kindly looked over the printed catalogue 

 of Canon Tristram's collection, and found at p. 18 "Strepsilas 

 interpres. $ Orkney, 10/6/51. J. Begg." 



However, the fact of a Turnstone being shot in the middle 

 of June proves nothing, as we have seen them ourselves in 

 Orkney all through the summer. 



If Canon Tristram had a Turnstone's egg from the same 

 source, Professor Newton must have heard of it, and as the 

 latter gentleman used to get Hubbard's list from time to 

 time, such an egg would most assuredly not have been passed 

 over by him. Hubbard has been dead some thirty-five years 

 or more. Neither does Mr. Moodie-Heddle's specimen seem 

 forthcoming. 



We give all these facts to our readers, leaving them to judge 

 their value for themselves, and at the same time, we wish to do 

 justice to all our correspondents' information. 



Haematopus ostralegus, L. Oyster-catcher, 



Orc.=Sceolder. 



Very abundant in most places in the breeding season, but much 

 scarcer in the winter, almost becoming a rare bird then. At 

 Skaill they are not so numerous, and, when seen, are either in 

 small flocks of eight or ten, or in pairs. Mr. Eeid mentions 

 one killed at Shapinsay, on the 9th of January 1864, as if it 

 was a rarity at that season. 



Mr. Irvine-Fortescue remarks that the Oyster-catchers feed 

 principally by boring with their beaks down into the sand for 

 cockles, and by forcing limpets off the rocks, and then picking 

 out the mollusc. At Swanbister they do not, as a rule, number 

 more than eight or ten in a flock. 



Family SCOLOPACHXE. 

 Recurvi rostra avocetta, L. Avocet, 



Beyond the bare statement in the 4th edition of Yarrell, vol. iii. 

 p. 301, that the Avocet has occurred in the Orkneys, we have 

 no other notice of its having been found there. 



