The Zoologist — September, 1873. 3687 



raore closely saw what looked like minute flashes of light shooting 

 over the ooze, this appearance being due to hundreds of small 

 reddish worms, which were perpetually emerging and as rapidly 

 retracting, each from its own little boring ; their motions were so 

 rapid that it was difficult to follow them. The redshank was 

 gathering these, not from the surface (for they were much too quick 

 even for the nimble wader), but by probing the mud. On with- 

 drawing the worm, which was held crosswise, I saw the bird 

 frequently wash it before swallowing, which was done by shaking 

 it under water in the shallow pools left by the receding tide. The 

 heat this day was tremendous, the thermometer standing at some 

 degrees above 80 in the shade ; the mud-flats steamed and reeked 

 under the noonday glare, the hot air over them quivering like the 

 blast from an iron-furnace. 



Guillemot, 8fc. — On the 10th of July there were many guillemots 

 and razorbilled auks, with their young, — many of these still unable 

 to fly, — along the coast of Holderness and Lincolnshire. 



Turnstone. — August 2nd. I saw small family parties of young 

 turnstones and a few old birds on the Spurn coast this morning. 

 They are most active in their motions when looking for food, 

 running rapidly to and fro amongst the masses and ridges of tide- 

 driven wrack and sea-weed, which they keep perpetually probing 

 and turning over in their search for insects and sand-hoppers. 



John Cordeaux. 



Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire. 



Rare Birds near Barnsley. — The closing months of last year and the 

 opening ones of the present have given opportunities to observe many birds 

 rare to South Yorkshire, of which Barnsley is the centre. This has been 

 especially the case with swimming and wading birds, whose appearance in 

 such unusual numbers was occasioned by the changeful season. The chief 

 of these have been the Uttle bittern, at Hiendley Reservoir, on the 26th of 

 August, 1872 ; the blackheaded gull, at the same place, on the 17th of 

 September ; the reeve, at Barugh, near the Barnsley Canal, on the 30th of 

 August ; four tufted ducks, at Dunford Reservoir, on the 30th of October ; 

 the common scoter (not observed in this part for many years), at Dunford 

 Reservoir, on the 18th of November; a pair of little grebes, or dabchicks, 

 at Cannon Hall Pool, also a pair of longeared owls near West Melton, and 

 a shorteared owl at Mapplewell, on the same date ; the great crested grebe, 

 at Bolton-on-Dearne, on the 30th of November; the greater and lesser 



