9518 Birds. 



Ornithological Notes from Shetland. By H. L. Saxby, M.D. 

 (Continued from page 9489). 



December, 1864. 

 Turnstone. — At this season turnstones frequent all parts of the coast, 

 associating with ringed plovers and purple sandpipers, but usually in 

 small numbers. More than half a dozen are seldom seen together, but 

 during the rough weather of the last few weeks a great number col- 

 lected upon the sands in Balta, where they still seem inclined to remain. 

 When turnstones are in company with other species they are more 

 easily approached than at other limes, but after having been fired at 

 they become very suspicious, and for weeks afterwards it is difficult to 

 get within shot upon open ground. On being disturbed they nearly 

 always utter their loud twittering notes, and invariably fly seawards, 

 seldom alighting until they have several times passed and repassed 

 the selected spot. When wounded they swim with great ease, and 

 will even take to the water voluntarily when closely pursued, but I have 

 never yet seen one attempt to dive. It is a matter of surprise that so 

 careful an observer as Macgillivray should have regarded " their alleged 

 stone-turning habits as a fable." I have watched these birds for hours 

 at a time, and besides witnessing the act repeatedly, have afterwards 

 visited the ground, where the displacement of stones and shells, and 

 even the completely reversed position of some, have been quite suffi- 

 cient to prove the existence of the habit in question. Such traces are 

 of course most readily observed upon a sandy beach where the stones 

 are few and scattered, and upon masses of drifted weed the wet ap- 

 pearance of those portions which have lately been disturbed are very 

 evident; indeed it is chiefly among seaweed that this peculiar method 

 of searching for food is employed. Although this bird mostly fiequents 

 rocky shores, the sands, during stormy weather or immediately after- 

 wards, a))pear to be very attractive. 



Jack Snipe. — Jack snipe are unusually abundant this winter. 

 Although they are to be met with in most spots which are frequented 

 by the common species, they are solitary in their habits, so that two 

 are not often seen upon the wing at one time. Sometimes, when a 

 marsh has been well explored and every common snipe has been 

 flushed, a jack snipe will spring up from a small tuft of grass or from 

 a hollow in the ground, and even then not until it is almost beneath 

 one's feet. 



Common Snipe. — In consequence of the openness of the weather, 

 a large proportion of the snipe remained in the hills until the snow, 



