2772 The Zoologist — September, 1871. 



surrounded by her dwarfish progeny ; the neck arched and head proudly 

 erect; wings gracefully raised, a screen and shelter for the young, who, 

 nestling beneath, bury themselves in the downy feathers or peer out between 

 them. At first they fiud a difficulty in making the ascent, slipping back 

 into the water, though aided by the old bird, who floats more deeply to 

 receive them, but ere many days they mount readily enough ; and a pretty 

 sight it is to see them sporting up and down, ducking and splashing 

 themselves overhead. — Henry Hadjield; July 15, 1871. 



Name of a Wader. — In examiuing the contents of this Museum my 

 attention was arrested by a slender long-legged bird, badly mounted and 

 dirty, but with a label attached to it, " Egyptian plover, shot on Hamsker 

 Moor,- by Mr. Bond, 1835." It has now been cleaned and remounted, 

 and T suppose it to be a rare visitant. As I am no great ornithologist 

 I ought to speak with reserve, but I suppose it cannot be a plover, for it 

 has a very distinct thumb or hind claw near the base of the foot, the outer 

 claws webbed, and the nasal groove half the length of the bill {Totanus, Cuv.) 

 It does not agree exactly wiih any description I have seen, but appears to 

 come nearest to that you have given of the wood sandpiper {T. glareola, 

 Linn.) It is certainly not the greenshank. Descr'qMon. — Entire length 

 from tip of the bill to the end of the tail twelve inches ; tail two inches and 

 a half; length of bill one inch and four lines; tarsus two inches and one 

 line ; naked part of the tibia eight lines ; from carpus to end of wing seven 

 inches and a half, reaching three-fourths of an inch beyond the slightly 

 convex tail. Bill straight, slender ; it and the legs dark — probably they 

 may have been green ; a light band over the eyes : neck gray, tinged with 

 reddish, darker behind ; feathers on the crown of the head dark brown, 

 edged with reddish ; back dark brown, edged with whitish, passing into 

 reddish ; quill-feathers black, shaft white, inner web brownish ; abdo- 

 men and under tail-coverts white ; upper tail-coverts gray, passing into 

 reddish ; tail of twelve nearly equal feathers, dark brown, edged with white, 

 inner ones very indistinctly barred in places. Our collector, Mr. George 

 Kitching, who has had much experience as a field naturalist, has never 

 seen such a bird before. I send you this description, thinking you interested 

 in the matter. — 2lartm Simpson ; Whitby Museum, June 9, 1871. 



[I cannot pronounce on the species. 1 think it cannot be the wood or 

 green sandpiper. My friend Mr. Bond, on reading this description, suggests 

 that it may be one of the godwits ; but it is difficult to say without seeing 

 the specimen. — Edward Neivman.] 



Errata.— In " Ornithological Notes from Futtehgurh" (Zoo). S. S. 2678), 

 first line, for Nynpowy read Mynpowy ; twelfth line from bottom, for Ela 

 read Eta. — C. Home. 



' A lofty range, five or six miles from Whitby. 



