2346 The Zoologist— October, 1870. 



observe tbe moult has cunoinenced, and a few cinereous gray feathers are cropping out 

 on the spotted back, showiiij^ the assumption of the winter plumage. I have not yet 

 heard of any wood sandpipers at Scilly. It may be worth ndticing that the spots in 

 the plumage of young wood sandpipers are strongly tinged with yellow. — Edward 

 Hearle Rodd; Sejilember 5, l\f70. 



Buffbreasled Sandpiper at Scilly. — A fine male specimen of this beautiful stint was 

 bhoi on the margin of a pool at St. Bryher's, one of the inhabited i>lands at Scilly, last 

 week, and is now set up by Mr. Vingoe with expanded wings, showing the elegant 

 markings and powdered specks peculiar to this species. This, with two additional 

 pectoral sandpipers, also from Si. Mary's, Scilly, one of which, the mule, is so superior 

 in size to the other that it seems that I am supported in the opinion that in this, as 

 well as the buffbreastcd stint, the male is the largest. — Id. 



Pectoral Stint or Sandpiper at Scilly. — Since I wrote to you with a few notes on 

 the visits of the sandpipers to the Scilly Isles this autumn, furnished by my friend 

 Mr. Jenkinson, who returned from the islands yesterday, I am enabled to add the 

 occurrence, for the second lime, of the pectoral sandpiper, which he shot just before 

 he left the islands, and which he brought with him for my inspection. It is in 

 very fine plumage, but presenting no feaiure of difference from the on6 obtained 

 from the same locality by the late Mr. D. Mitchell, and referred to by Yarrell, 

 in his article on the pectoral sandpiper iu his 'British Birds.' Perhaps tbe 

 breast presents a rather greater tendency to summer plumage, from the prominence of 

 the dark markings: the feet and legs were brownish yellow. — Id.i September 8, 1870. 



Pectoral Sandpiper at Scilly. — I merely wish to add to my former communication 

 that another specimen, and apparently one amongst a flock, has been captured at 

 Scilly. I suppose therefore thai this species may be regarded as having hiiherto 

 escaped observation, and that vigilant eyes may fiud the species more generally spread 

 about as one of our autumnal visitors than was anticipated. The legs may be 

 described as greenish yellow : this is a good mark of dislinclion from the dunlin at all 

 limes. — Id.; September 12, 1870. 



PS. — As a supplement to my former letters on the occurrence of the pectoral stint 

 or sandpiper at Scilly, I write to inlorni you that a fine male specimen was kindly 

 sent to mc as a present by my friend Mr. Augustus Pechell, whose name has frequently 

 appeared in the 'Zoologist' as having contributed rare British birds to the Cornish 

 Avifauna. This specimen appears larger than the others I have seen, and it is a 

 character at variance with the Tringae generally, as the females (especially in the 

 dunlin and when old) are much the largest. — E. U. R.; September 16, 1870. 



Spurwinged Goose. — Mr. Rodd is mistaken in supposing that the St. Germans' 

 spurwinged goose (which was not visible at Newcastle when I last made inquiries for 

 it) is "the only recorded British specimen." One was killed near Banff in 1855 

 ('Naturalist,' 1855, p. 181), and is stated in the third edition of Yarreil's 'British 

 Birds ' to be in the possession of Mr. Smurthwaite, of Richmond, Yorkshire ; but on a 

 recent visit to that place with my father we could hear nothing of it, and I am unable 

 to say whether it is referable to the true A user gambeusis or to Plectropterus rueppelli 

 of Sclater ('Ibis,' iii. p. 375). In Kennedy's ' Birds of Berks and Bucks' there is a 

 full account of another spurwinged goose which was shot near Boveney Weir by a 

 waterman (p. 201), and another is recorded iu 'Science Gossip,' for March, 1870, to 

 have been captured in Wilts : the Rev. F. 0. Morris also wrote to the ' Times,' last 



