The Zoologist — December, 1867. toil 



common and arctic are those most frequently met with. I examined 

 several skins of both species. Several Sandwich and black terns were 

 shot during the autumn, and a solitary whitewinged black tern, I was 

 told, seen this year in the neighbourhood. 



A considerable flock of petrel (T/ialassidroma pelagica) arrived in 

 Bridlington Bay during the first week in October, and some eight or 

 nine of these little ocean wanderers were shot : they had little fear of 

 man, so little that one was knocked down by the short gaff the fisher- 

 men use when hauling in the cod. 



I had a long talk to-day with the man at the lighthouse on the 

 subject of our migratory birds. At this season it is no unusual cir- 

 cumstance to pick up birds on the balcony below the lantern, killed 

 by flying against the glass. This is more frequently the case on 

 thick, dark and foggy nights, when the light is in a great measure 

 obscured. Woodcock and wild duck, and frequently snipe, have been 

 found thus knocked on the head, and occasionally partridges and 

 starlings, and other species not probably migratory. Sometimes flocks 

 of smaller birds will on these dark nights flutter round and against the 

 glass like moths, and may be then taken by hand, as they are com- 

 pletely bewildered by the dazzling glare. He had often seen in the 

 autumn, about " woodcock time," flocks of the little goldcrested wren. 

 A temporary and favourite resting-place was the small garden attached 

 to the lighthouse, where he had observed them foraging amongst the 

 cabbages and greens ; the next day not one would be seen in the 

 neighbourhood. He told me the woodcocks usually arrived with a N. 

 or N.E. wind. Had once seen some arrive during the day. They 

 alight immediately on landing, either just topping the cliff, or, in 

 stormy weather, dropping at the base just above high water, where for 

 a time they lay like stones in any nook or corner. After a stormy 

 night they are frequently found in the little caves and hollows, worn 

 by the waves at the base of these sea-cliffs. If put up on their arrival 

 they move with a slow and lazy flight, seldom going more thau a 

 hundred yards. A single woodcock was this year killed at Flam- 

 borough in the first week of October ; and six, I heard, killed on the 

 14th. 



John Cordeaux. 



Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 

 November 1, 1867. 



