60 A BIRD COLLECTOR'S MEDLEY. 



On the 2nd of the same month my brother, G. F., had secured a far 

 greater rarity in the shape of a Siberian Stonechat (Pratincola maura) 

 the first specimen ever taken in the British Isles. This bird 'he shot on 

 a gorse common not far off, and he all but threw it away. He was 

 induced to shoot by the bird's unusually dark appearance, but on picking 

 it up he found that it was moulting heavily and that the dark look was 

 in a great measure due to this. He fortunately brought it home, and I 

 had it stuffed on the off-chance of its turning out a melanism. For over 

 a year it remained in my collection, a seedy-looking bird, which I regarded 

 with no particular respect, and then Mr. Howard Saunders saw and identified 

 it, and it was subsequently exhibited at the British Ornithologists' Club. It 

 returned from that ordeal invested with the halo of renown, and I now shudder 

 to think how near we came to making away with it. It is in the Eastbourne 

 Museum. 



The following year-I had the extraordinary good luck to add another bird 

 to the British list viz., the Yellow-breasted Bunting (Emberiza aureola), 

 and, had I followed the advice of several people who saw it in the flesh, it 

 too might have been thrown away. This was a genuine case of patience being 

 rewarded. The season of 1905 was in the early part of September an unusually 

 bad one. Day after day people went through the bushes and hardly a shot 

 was fired. Some left the village, some ceased to do the bushes, and in the end 

 I, as the only person who stuck to them, had the shooting almost to myself. 

 Up till the i4th the wind was mostly S.W., it then veered to N.W., and on 

 the igth I got a Landrail out of the scrub. On the 2Oth, with the wind .still 

 N.W., Mr. A. H. Streeten and I unquestionably saw, and missed, a Red- 

 breasted Flycatcher. The bird flew straight at me, and settled a few yards 

 off. I had a good view, and noted that it was smaller than a Pied Flycatcher, 

 and had white in the tail, but none on the wings. For fear of blowing it to 

 bits I retired too far and managed to miss it, and, as it unfortunately flew out 

 over the muds, we never again got on its track. However, the meeting with 

 this bird proved a stepping-stone towards the acquisition of the Bunting. 

 Having decided that if the Flycatcher had returned from its excursion into 

 the estuary, it had probably got into the " Watch House " bushes, we did 

 these with elaborate care the following day, and though no Flycatcher was 

 to be found, we suddenly put out a bird, which from its flight and size 

 appeared to be a very yellow specimen of a Titlark. Still there was a doubt 

 about it, and so we started on a chase, which proved eminently discreditable 

 to our shooting powers. After each miss I became more convinced that the 

 bird was a rarity; but, when it was at length laid low, we both thought at 



