3802 The Zoologist — December, 1873. 



Scolopax gallinago. On the 22nd of September we killed on the snipe- 

 ground — a mile from us, and thirteen miles from the coast7-a blacktailed 

 godwit {Limosa arjocephala). Total length, sixteen inches ; tarsus, three 

 inches ; bare portion of the tibia, one inch and three-quarters ; bill, three 

 inches ; weight, ten ounces. A day or two later my brother wounded a 

 solitary snipe [Scolopax major), which after a long hunt we found, having 

 marked it down some hundred and fifty yards off; it weighed only six 

 ounces. Length, eleven inches ; bill, two inches and a quarter. It lay very 

 close, and uttered a note not unlike that of the common snipe on rising, 

 when we immediately saw that it was a stranger to us, owing to its entirely 

 different flight, — heavy, slow, and straight away. The first Scolopax gallinula 

 was shot on the 29th of September. A scaup {FuUgula marila) we secured 

 on the Wyre on the 10th of October, about nine miles from the sea. It 

 was by itself, and easily approached, but on being winged astonished us by 

 its diving powers. Three of apparently the same species regularly haunted 

 some flooded meadows in our neighbourhood for a week or ten days. On 

 the 11th of October we shot our first golden plover, in winter plumage. A 

 few quails [Coturnix vulgaris) annually breed with us, and are always to be 

 found within a few yards of the same field. Rather more plentiful this 

 season than of late years. They rarely rise in bevies, but singly ; on the 

 12th of October, however, our retriever flushed a bevy, containing about ten 

 birds. The spotted crake {Crex porzana) again was in our part of the 

 country : a young bird was accidentally shot in September, and on the 15th 

 of October I and my retriever caught two, one a young and the other an old 

 bird, alive, but set free again. They show great repugnance to flying, 

 preferring to trust to their legs, running very quickly and low, and looking 

 more like rats than birds. Even when Hberated in open ground, the two I 

 caught refused to fly, though quite free from injury. On being placed in 

 some shallow, clear water, they immediately dive, staying below the surface 

 a considerable time, occasionally using their wings until a rushy patch be 

 found, in which they creep, and remain as long as possible, when they raise 

 their heads, but no more out of the water.— Hugh P. Hornby; 35, Norfolk 

 Street, Strand. 



Note on Rare Birds obtaiiied near Flamborough Ilcad.— I have seen a 

 beautiful specimen of the Sabine's gull, apparently a bird of this year, which 

 was killed near Flamborough Head on the loth of October by Mr. Matthew 

 Bailey, who I am informed also obtained three little gulls and saw a gi-ealer 

 shearwater all about the same date and in the same locality. — J. H. 

 Gurney: October 2i, 1873. 



Peregrine near Scarborough.— On the 30th of September a young specimen 

 of the peregrine falcon was shot at Cayton Waterworks, near Scarborough. 

 The bird has been sent for preservation to Mr. Alfred Roberts; it had just 

 been feeding on a rock pigeon. — 7". Beck; Scarborough. 



