THE ZooLoGist—JANUARY, 1872. 2905 
January 6th. Found a male pochard, killed by the telegraph- 
wire in St. Mary’s Moors: at different times this winter a woodcock 
and five snipes were killed in the same manner, the effect of the 
wire on a snipe being generally to cut the wing clean off. Some 
stalked snipes, shot at different times, had probably suffered from 
a similar accident. A brace of partridges on Tresco killed them- 
selves by flying against some strained wire-fencing. From this date 
to the end of the month there appear to have been few arrivals of 
birds, and scarcely a snipe remained. A spoonbill, which had been 
seen in company with herons all the season and had been mistaken 
for a great white heron, was shot on the 26th; and a large bird, 
twice the size of the buzzard on Abbey Hill, frequented Samson, 
but escaped capture. 
F. R. Ropp. 
The Whitby Wader.— Through the kindness of Mr. Gould, I saw 
yesterday the “Whitby Wader,” which had been sent to him for his 
opinion as to its identity. It turns out to be a young male of the ruff 
(Machetes pugnax). I see by the stand on which the bird is, that it has 
lately been called “ Bartram’s sandpiper,” which name is certainly wrong, 
and Mr. S. Gardner, of Sheffield, is wrong in his identification. This is 
not the first time this bird, the ruff, has been taken, or rather mistaken, for 
Bartram’s sandpiper.—I’. Bond; 203, Adelaide Road, South Hamp- 
stead, N.W. 
Ringed Plover breeding at a distance from the Coast.— This species 
is far more fluvatic in its habits, in Aberdeenshire at least, than one would 
suppose from consulting books. Its range, inland, does not extend so far as 
that of Tringa hypoleucos, and it is more local in its occurrence, but I have 
found it as far up the Dee, the Don and the Doveran as Hematopus 
ostralegus, and I have even found it on the Ythan, the Ugie, the Tannar, 
and. other mountain tarns which the oystercatchers visit only when collected 
in coteries—a habit of the males in summer: when so assembled they 
serenade the valleys and mountains, as do the swifts the tall spires and 
factory chimneys of our cities. The ring dotterel, according to my notes, 
retires to its breeding-ground at a later date than either the common sand- 
piper or the oystercatcher. My earliest dates occur in 1868; and other 
seasons show a corresponding difference. In that year the oystercatcher 
arrived at Forglen House, on the Doveran, on the 19th of March and at 
Huntly on the following day. The common sandpiper arrived at the island 
on the Dee, opposite Banchory House, on the 28th. At this date I received 
specimens from Buchan, killed at where the Garvel and the Gouar meet, 
and also from Rotheymay on the Doveran; but the earliest I can trace the 
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