420 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
confidence, Mrs. Cummins sitting perfectly still, talking to it, 
and, as she expressed it, only wishing the pretty little creature 
_eould talk too, tell her from whence it came, and understand that 
it should receive no harm. After awhile, thinking that the little 
voyagers must be hungry, but not knowing the kind of food they 
required, she at first tried them with crumbs, but finding these 
were not eaten, she caused some meat—ham, I believe—to be ¢ut 
into small thin strips, so as to resemble worms as much as 
possible, and put into a basin of water, thinking by that means 
to tempt them to eat, but of course without avail. They remained 
on board for several hours, ultimately making their appearance 
on deck, and, finding the vessel to be in sight of land, took their 
departure, first hovering two or three times round the yacht by 
way of farewell, and then making straight for the coast, their 
kind friend wishing them “‘ God speed.” 
On August 9th Curlews returned to our mud-flats from their 
breeding-places, and flocks were constantly heard passing over 
the town by night. The last Swift observed by me was on the 
7th; and by the 25th I saw numbers of Turnstones, Dunlins, and 
Ring Plovers on the Laira mud-banks ; also many Yellow Wagtails, 
both old and: young birds, in the adjacent meadows. 
Captain H. Hadfield, in the last number of ‘ The Zoologist,' 
mentions the early appearance of Wild Geese passing over the 
Isle of Wight on June 30th. On July 14th a flock of these birds, 
seventeen in number, flew over Cannington, in Somersetshire, in 
a north-westerly direction. 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
Pine Marten 1n Lincotnsuine.—It may interest some of your readers 
to learn that a female Marten bas been trapped in a wood near here, and, 
being now a very rare animal in this part of the country, has been preserved. 
T understand this is only the second instance of the occurrence of this species 
in Lincolnshire within the last twenty years.—Cuartes Winn (Appleby 
Hall, Brigg). 
[Our correspondent having been so good as to forward the specimen for 
our inspection, we are able to state that it is the Pine Marten, and not the 
Beech Marten, as he at first supposed. In ‘The Zoologist’ for 1877 
(p. 251) the Rey. A. P. Morres has recorded the death of a Marten-cat in 
