The Zoologist— July, 1869. 1741 



is rather reniarl<able, nearly all are mature birds in full summer 

 plumage, the transition dress being quite the exception. Every little 

 flock of plover had its attendant dunlins, now likewise in the summer 

 dress. All these birds were within three hundred yards of the embank- 

 ment : I frequently observed them pick up some small object from the 

 "flats," probably crabs which swarm in all the shallow pools. 



Bartailed Godwit. — May 17th. Nine seen on the foreshore this 

 afternoon; six, in company with gray plover and dunlin, were follow- 

 ing the slowly receding tide, and working their long, slightly recurved 

 bills with great perseverance : of these birds five were in the sober 

 gray winter dress, the sixth only showing some patches of rufous on 

 the under parts. Within two hundred yards of the bank was a group 

 of three — one, the largest, in full plumage, from its size and some 

 peculiarities in the colouring, I conjecture a female ; I have never 

 seen a finer or more richly coloured bird of this species. The ladies' 

 companions were in sober gray, and, as yet, show no trace of changing 

 their dress. My telescope, a powerful one, brought the group close up 

 to my face : without changing my position amongst the long coarse 

 sea-grass, I had, beside the godwits, sixty-one gray plovers, several 

 hundred dunlins, and a few whimbrel and brown-hooded gulls, within 

 easy telescope range — not an every day sight for an ornithologist. 

 The cry of the godwit is a wild shrill whistle : on the wing they some- 

 what resemble a whimbrel, but are a slenderer looking bird, and their 

 wings seem narrower and more pointed ; their cry will, however, at 

 once mark them. I do not consider the godwit a naturally wild and 

 shy bird, but from their feeding almost invariably with curlew, whim- 

 brel or gray plover, they rise with the rest of the company. One I 

 shot some years since on our pasture land permitted me to walk up 



within short range. 



John Cokdeaux. 



May26tL, 1869. 



Notes on the Zoology of Newfoundland. 



By Henry Reeks, Esq., F.L.S., &c. 



(Continued from S. S. 1695.) 



Letter 3. — Ornithology. 

 HiRUNDiNiD^ — continued. 

 Purple Martin, Progne purpurea {Linn.) — This beautiful species 

 appears rare in Newfoundland ; at least I only obtained one specimen 

 shot at Daniel's Harbour in June, 1868 : the settlers did not seem to 



