The Zoologist— March, 1866. 127 



distance, sometimes returning again near to the spot from which 

 they were flushed ; in fact, I fancy that the green sandpiper is some- 

 times mistaken for a snipe by rustics, and may perhaps account for 

 the tales one hears of snipe being seen even at Midsummer. I saw a 

 green sandpiper as late as the 13th of October. 



Common Sandpiper.— \t is a curious fact that very ievf common 

 sandpipers, and {evf, if any, green sandpipers visit Rainham on their 

 spring migration northward, although both species become tolerably 

 abundant in the autumn. I noticed the first this season on the 7th of 

 July, and the last on the 13th of October, the latter being in company 

 with a green sandpiper : this is later than I ever remember to have 

 seen one, although last year I observed one as late as the 12th of the 

 same month. 



Common Snipe.— A very early visitant in the autumn. This season 

 the first occurred on the S7th of July, and my brother once saw one as 

 early as the 20th of the same month. These early birds are, however, 

 only stragglers, the species not becoming at all common till the end 

 of September or beginning of October. 



Jack S/)ipe.— Not nearly so early as the preceding : first occurred 

 this season on ihe 13th of October, about which time several made 

 their appearance. 



Little Stint.— Towards the end of July I observed one of these 

 birds about some pools of water; it was decidedly wild, and for 

 several days baffled all my attempts to shoot it ; at length I one day 

 wounded it, but, failing to mark the exact spot where the bird alighted, 

 was unfortunately unable to find it. 



Temminck's Stint.— On the 19th of July last I noticed a bird of 

 this species running along the edge of a pool : mistaking it for a sand- 

 piper, I took some trouble to put it up, and having shot it was greatly 

 surprised to see that 1 had got a Temminck's stint. It was a bird of 

 the year, and in plumage differed greatly from an adult of the same 

 species: the markings on the back were almost exactly similar to 

 those of Schinz's sandpiper in Yarrell. Again, on the 9th of Sep- 

 tember, a pair of these stints flying up the creek passed within range 

 of the sea-wall, upon which my brother and I were sitting, waiting, 

 and we each killed one. They proved to be adult birds in winter 

 plumage. The above-mentioned are the only specimens of this stint 

 that I ever met with near Rainham. 



Dunlin. — Large " flings " of these birds were observed in 

 September. They seldom came near the smaller creeks, apparently 



