538 The Zoologist — January, 18(57. 



merits had been repeated with most astonishing regularity for some 

 fifteen or twenty minutes, a sloping flight was directed towards the 

 ground, and throwing the wings above the back, at the same time 

 uttering a rapid " chucking" cry, it dropped out of sight among the 

 grass. There can be very little doubt that the bleating sound is made 

 by the wings, for it is only heard while the bird is descending with 

 them extended; never at any other time. I have many times pro- 

 duced a sound of much the same kind by cutting downwards through 

 the air with the outer edge of a large quill. A Shetland guide takes a 

 singular pleasure in calling the traveller's attention to the " snip- 

 pack's" supposed power of making its voice heard close at hand one 

 moment and a hundred yards off the next, and never for a moment 

 thinks of doubting that it is uttered while the bird is upon the ground 

 in order to lead the intruder from its nest. More than one old sports- 

 man of my acquaintance would rather suffer at the stake than renounce 

 the same time-honoured belief, but for myself I can only assert that on 

 hearing the sound in question my attempt to discover the bird pro- 

 ducing it in the air above has never failed, except at night or in foggy 

 weather. 



Blacktailed Godwit. — The blacktailed godwit mentioned in my 

 notes for last month (Zool. S. S. 477) was shot by me on the 4th of 

 June : it was running upon a small patch of sand close to the sea, and 

 allowed me to drift up in the boat until within about forty yards. 

 Although so late in the season it had not completely acquired the fine 

 red summer plumage. It was a female, and so very fat that I expe- 

 rienced great difficulty in skinning it without soiling the feathers. 

 The stomach contained sand, small stones, pieces of shells and 

 numerous skins of grubs. 



Black Guillemot. — As late as the. 7th of June I observed a parly of 

 seven black guillemots near Balla. More than two are very seldom 

 seen together in June. 



Sanderling. — On the evening of the 10th of June, after a smart 

 breeze from S.S.W., I saw a small party of sanderlings feeding with 

 some dunlins upon the flat ground left bare by the tide at the head of 

 the voe. So far as I could ascertain they fed in silence until I was 

 observed, when they commenced a warning " twit, twit," rising with 

 the same cry if still further pressed. At two o'clock next morning 

 (Monday) I went out and shot one, fearing that the fishermen would 

 disturb them : it was in the beautiful reddish plumage peculiar to 

 summer. 



