WADING BIRDS. 193 



cry was taken tip by one and another as they passed, 

 and had a peculiarly wild effect. 



The Redshank (Totanus calidris) is the next of our 

 visitors, but at rare intervals. I have only known of 

 three, all occurring in the winter. One was killed in a 

 small boggy piece of ground bordering the stream on 

 the outskirts of the village ; another, a young female, was 

 shot in 1S59, in a meadow on Carbrecks farm, while 

 feeding. 



The Common Sandpiper ( T. hypoleucos) occurs spar- 

 ingly on our streams, but I never met with more than 

 a pair at a time. A low-lying meadow a short distance 

 from my garden was frequently chosen by a pair as 

 their summer residence, and their lively habits added 

 a charm to the quiet stream on whose banks they fed. 

 If left unmolested they would doubtless have bred there, 

 but they generally, alas ! fell victims to the mania for 

 shooting everything strange. 



My claim to include the Greenshank (T. glottis) in 

 my list rests on the occurrence of a single individual 

 seen by my father many years ago on the same 

 piece of swampy ground which I mentioned as having 

 sheltered the redshank. It rose on his approach, and 

 flew slowly away, and was not seen again. 



The same remark applies to a bird which is still more 

 seldom seen the Avocet (Recurvirostra avocetta). On 

 the 24th of July, 1856, one was seen in a meadow on 

 the banks of the stream at Edwinstowe by a boy, who 

 of course did not know what the strange bird was. He 

 managed in some way to steal upon it so closely as to 

 kill it by a stroke of a stick. It proved to be a young 

 bird, in good condition, but in immature plumage. It 

 is not often that this bird comes inland ; even when 



o 



