3722 The Zoologist— October, 1873. 



Their call is peculiar; it is not a whistle, but a "chirrup," and 

 may not inaptly be rendered by this word. When the flock are in 

 full chorus, which is generally the case when they are on the wing, 

 the effect is exceedingly musical and pleasing: it is not unlike the 

 twittering of snow buntings, and most opposite to the sharp distinct 

 call of the dunlin. 



I saw several other small parties during the next two hours, and 

 later two flocks in a thirty-five acre pasture near my marsh farm- 

 stead — probably about seventy in one, fifty in the other. I killed 

 four out of these, some of the survivors, as in the previous instance, 

 hovering for a short time over the dead birds, uttering the same 

 pitiful wailing note. 



These flocks all occurred within a comparatively circumscribed 

 area, and I can speak positively as to their having been composed 

 exclusively of curlew sandpipers. I saw, however, during the day 

 many very extensive gatherings of similar appearance careering 

 above the marshes at great distances, much too far indeed for 

 identification, yet judging from what I had seen on ray own land, 

 I feel tolerably confident that they also were curlew sandpipers, 

 and probably all of them migratory flocks. On the following day, 

 as far as I could judge, they had entirely left the district, and 

 I have only seen half a dozen since. 



In the specimens procured, the bill and claws are black ; the 

 legs, tarsi and feet very dark green — the colour known as " in- 

 visible green;" iris dark brown. The stomachs of three examined 

 were filled entirely with insect remains, — Coleoptera, Diplera, and 

 their larvae, — also several sharp angular fragments of quartz, not 

 picked up in this district. 



John Cordeaux. 

 Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lmcolnsbire, 



Boltlenoscd ^Thales off Penzance. — Five large cetaceans, which, from 

 what I saw of them (viz. the back fin and part of the back adjacent to it), 

 I believe to be bottlenosed whales, or "blowers," passed uiy boat about 

 two miles off the shore here, on Wednesday evening, the 20th of August. 

 Three were much larger than the other two. — Thomas Cornish ; Penzance, 

 August 22, 1873. 



