130 The Zoologist— March, 1866. 



the water, and they are off at once. Sometimes, after a long stalk, 

 when I have all but succeeded in getting within range, the alarm-note 

 has been sounded by some passing bird, and the whole flock has at 

 once taken the alarm and gone off in a body. It is no unfrequent 

 sight to see thousands together on the wing. Unlike the golden plover, 

 they never attempt any order in their flight; sometimes the front rank 

 will keep up some resemblance to a line, the remainder following in a 

 disorderly mass. They do not appear to feed much in the marshes 

 during the day, apparently resorting thither more for rest, and if un- 

 disturbed will remain for hours nearly on the same spot: towards 

 evening, however, they are on the alert ; the various flocks then wend 

 their way to the partially cleared turnip-fiilds on the higher lands : 

 here they feed during the night in company with golden plovers, 

 returning to the open country at early dawn. These flocks follow night 

 after night the same line of flight to their feeding-grounds, and this is 

 almost the only time it is possible to obtain a shot, as they then 

 seldom fly high, often only just rising above the hedge-tops in their 

 course. 



Golden Plover.— ^These plovers have been unusually plentiful in our 

 marslies, often associating with the peewits, at other times keeping 

 entirely aloof One day I have seen nothing but the golden plovers 

 in the marshes and the green plovers on the higher land; at other 

 times the reverse is the case. On the wing the golden plovers fly with 

 great reyidarity. When the flocU consists of but i'ew birds they 

 usually fly in a line, one behind the other; larger flocks fly in the 

 shajie of the letter V, three or four birds flying behind in the wide part 

 of the h'lter : larger flocks frequently take the form of a W. The larger 

 the flock the less regularity in their flight; thus I have often seen 

 thousands together pass over the marshes without any order, like a 

 flock of starlings. 



Shorteiued OuL— These owls have, I am afraid, left the district. 

 It is now five or six weeks since I saw one: probably they have left 

 us in consequence of their favourite haunts, the shorn stubbles, having 

 been plouglied up, and the drain-banks mown. I have never seen 

 these owls hawking by day, but have often observed them at dusk, 

 beating backwards and forwards across the stubbles ; they then glide 

 silently across the fields, about two feet from the ground, now and 

 then giving one short quick beat with their pinions, and then gliding 

 on for thirty or forty yards without any visible movement of the wings. 

 I have sometimes seen them in the evening flying round the corn- 



