CURLEW SANDPIPER. 317 



a large group, the birds merely gave way in the centre, running to 

 each side and allowing the machine to pass, after which they drew 

 together again. I struck at several family groups with the whip, 

 and it was then I saw the white-rumped birds as they rose. The 

 call-note of the Curlew-billed Sandpiper is a chattering sort of 

 whistle, which at once arrests attention as something different from 

 the disturbed cry of the dunlin. 



Mr Graham states that this species is found* occasionally in 

 lona and Mall; and it is likewise sparingly distributed along the 

 shores of Argyle and Ayr, being especially noticeable in early 

 autumn, when the migratory flocks return from their breeding 

 quarters. Small flocks have also been seen, and specimens obtained, 

 on the banks of the Forth, near Grangemouth, by Mr Harvie Brown. 

 In East Lothian the Curlew-billed Sandpiper is met with in small 

 numbers on the banks of the Tyne. Many years ago, when 

 rambling along the sands at the mouth of the river, I noticed a 

 man and a boy, with a horse and cart, stalking dunlins and other 

 small shore birds. The pony had been trained to walk slowly 

 towards a group of birds, while the owner lay concealed in the 

 cart ready to fire his long-barrelled gun over the side; and after 

 waiting until I had seen him literally mow down a flock, I had an 

 opportunity of turning over the contents of his bag, in which I 

 found a fair proportion of this species of sandpiper. On the 9th 

 of May, 1870, 1 observed on the shore at the 'Vaults' near Dunbar 

 a large flock of Curlew Sandpipers flying in circles, as if disturbed, 

 just above the sea margin at low tide. I was at once attracted by 

 their musical twitterings, uttered while the flock was on the 

 wing, and sounding like a concert of tiny whistles. The birds 

 were evidently migrants from the south, and were resting pro- 

 bably for an hour or two in the course of their journey north- 

 wards. 



Mr Mitchell of Aberdeen has sent me in the flesh the Curlew- 

 billed Sandpiper from near the mouth of the Don, where it appears 

 to be a well-known visitant; and in connection with the same 

 county, I have been assured by Mr Stuart Burnett of Keith Hall 

 that he has met with the bird in a marshy spot in the parish of 

 Kinellar (long since drained) on 30th May, 1852. "At the time," 

 writes Mr Burnett, " it seemed to have young near, as it fluttered 

 along the ground in a decoying way, dragging its wings. The 

 same year I saw one or two others in some wet localities near 



