218 BIRDS. 



this date, and now they are excessively common, often thirty 

 or forty huddled together on some rock that the tide is just 

 covering." 



Tringa canutus (.). Knot. 



Only a casual visitant to these islands. We have notes of their 

 having been killed near Skaill in one or two instances, and also 

 Mr. Irvine-Fortescue has seen them occasionally in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Swanbister, but not for some years (1887). Mr. 

 F. Boyes of Beverley also informs us that he killed a Knot at 

 Stroinness in the autumn of 1866. 



Mr. Cameron, late of Burgar, has an immature specimen in 

 his collection of Orkney birds. Mr. Monteith-Ogilvie saw three 

 Knots at Papa Westray on August 17th, 1889, and shot one. 

 He also saw a flock of about twenty in Sanday in December of 

 the same year, and shot some half-dozen for eating. 



Machetes pugnax (Z.). Ruff. 



From all accounts a rare bird in Orkney. The late Mr. Kanken 

 mentioned that he had shot both sexes in the islands. The 

 latest killed, of which we have received a notice, was shot 

 by Mr. Watt near Skaill at the end of September or beginning 

 of October 1887. 



In 1887 a pair of these birds was said to have bred at 

 Tankerness. Mr. Cameron of Burgar kindly investigated the 

 matter for us, and found out that this was a mistake, and that 

 the pair of birds which had bred there, whatever they might 

 have been, were certainly not of this species. 



Mr. Millais informs us that as he was returning home to 

 Stromness one evening at the beginning of August 1888, having 

 expended his last cartridge on a Snipe, he came across a Ruff 

 and two Keeves in some cultivated ground near Stenness. They 

 were perfectly tame, and allowed him to come within a few 

 yards of them. 



