94 A BIRD COLLECTOR'S MEDLEY. 



Sandpiper taken at the same place. Two other rarities have, to my know- 

 ledge, been secured by College boys. In September, 1906, L. E. Dennys 

 shot a Red-necked Phalarope, and in the same month G. H. Beattie 

 obtained a Glossy Ibis with a small Winchester rifle. The last-named 

 reached Mr. Bates in such an advanced stage of decomposition that I hardly 

 expected him to stuff it. He managed it, however, and it is now in the 

 Institute. Eastbourne seems to lie in the line of the Ibis migration, for 

 two of these birds were obtained on Pevensey Marsh in the autumn of 1905. 



The best birds that I have seen on the Crumbles myself have for 

 the most part appeared in the close season, when I was without a gun. 

 In June, 1902, I was attracted by the peculiar cry of a large Wader, 

 which was flying about amongst some Redshanks. Its tail, doubtless owing 

 to its long extended legs, appeared very triangular as it passed me, and 

 the wings seemed to have a good deal of black in them. We thought it 

 must be a Black-tailed Godwit, but, if so, its flight was much quicker 

 than that of the Bar-tailed, and it did not seem quite large enough. I 

 have since thought that it may have been a Stilt, but, owing to the light 

 and the angle at which it always approached us, we found it impossible 

 to get a good view. Anyhow, the size and note stamped it as a good bird, 

 though more than that I am not prepared to affirm. 



More certainty attaches to the identification of another queer bird 

 which Streeten and I saw there on June 2ist, 1903. When first observed, 

 it was flying over the higher shingle, where some of the Ringed Plovers 

 are to be found, and but for its peculiar flight, which was like a Nightjar's, 

 it might perhaps have passed for one of these. The flight once noticed, 

 we listened eagerly for the note. The bird soon uttered it, and there was 

 no resemblance to that of a Plover. After watching it for some time, 

 we decided that it must be a Pratincole, and further investigation on June 

 28th confirmed us in this surmise. The idea afterwards received unexpected 

 support from the ' Zoologist,' wherein it was announced that a Pratincole 

 had been shot at Rye on July i7th. As our bird was not seen again on 

 the Crumbles, so far as I know, after the 28th, it is not unreasonable to 

 suppose that in an ill-fated moment it had been inspired to move on to Rye. 

 Quern deus vult perdere prius dementat. 



I had another interesting day in the same July, when asked to show 

 the Crumbles to a visitor who was fond of natural history. I told him 

 when we started that he might see anything, and he replied that he would 

 be quite satisfied with breeding Redshanks and Ringed Plover. These he 

 saw and duly appreciated, also some Terns which were fishing in one of 



