NOTES. 99 



BLACK-TAILED GODWIT AND SPOTTED REDSHANK 

 IN KENT. 



On May 12th last I was walking alongside a " fleet " in 

 Romney Marsh when a bird which was strange to me rose from 

 the edge of some shallow water. I at once got my binoculars 

 on to it, and by the long straight bill, white wing-bar and white 

 rump and Ught brown back, I identified it as a Black- tailed 

 Godwit {Limosa helgica), and from its size I should say it 

 was a female. It flew some distance, and I thought I had 

 marked it down, but on going to the spot I failed to flush it 

 again. On the 16th I visited the same ground, but did not 

 see the Godwit, so it had evidently continued its migration. 



The same evening my attention was called to a strange bird 

 flying overhead by hearing a whistle something like that of 

 a Redshank. For a moment I thought it was a Golden Plover 

 with black breast, but on looking at it through my glasses, I 

 noticed it flew very hke a Common Redshank, and had a beak 

 as long as a Redshank, and was black all over, with white 

 speckles. I at once decided it was a male Spotted Redshank 

 [Totanus fuscus) on migration. 



R. Sparrow. 



CHANGE OF NESTING SITES THROUGH HUMAN 

 INFLUENCE. 



Last January the Black-headed Gull was removed from the 

 list of egg-protected birds. As a consequence its regular 

 nesting-places were raided by collectors of eggs for local 

 consumption, or for despatch to London as Plovers' eggs, 

 and the result was that the birds, seeking fresh quarters, 

 formed two new colonies on Wedholme Flow and Rockliffe 

 Marsh, near Carhsle. The Redshank has been subjected to 

 similar persecution. At one time the commonest of our 

 shore-birds, its numbers suffered such depletion that it was 

 put on the list of egg-protected birds by the Cumberland 

 County Council. On the marshes in North Lancashire its 

 eggs have been largely gathered for substitution as Plovers' 

 eggs in the metropolitan market, and the result has been a 

 notable exodus of the birds to the Yorkshire dales for security, 

 In the neighbourhood of Bentham, as Mr. Murdoch, a capable 

 naturalist, reports. Redshanks have been nesting freely, and 

 in a Yorkshire dale several miles further inland I have noticed 

 a remarkable development. With the sequestered and 

 beautiful dale named Kingsdale, I have been familiar from 

 boyhood, and have fished its trout stream for more than fifty 

 years. I can vouch for it that such a bird as a Redshank 



